Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Jackson of Peterborough Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

My Lords, I shall contribute very briefly to the debate on this important amendment. I say at the beginning that I defer to no one in my admiration for the noble Lord, Lord Bird, and his heroic battle over many years to raise the issue of homelessness and those less fortunate people who do not have access to good housing. Sometimes, you come upon an amendment and you have to make a decision between your heart and your head. Your heart is very much taken with the sincerity of the noble Lord’s argument about the need to be fair—principally to tenants, but also to landlords—in the way you put legislation together.

I absolutely and fully take that view, but the noble Lord will understand that one of the reasons I do not support his amendment is that the Government, rightly or wrongly, have brought the Bill to this stage. I believe that Section 21 will have unintended consequences. It will reduce the amount of rental stock, and mean that people who own capital will sell it to other people who own capital—landlords—and they will not put that property back on the market for those in the most desperate need, mainly young working families, but also others in the market. The noble Lord will know—it is a wider issue, I accept—that rent controls very rarely work, whether it is in Barcelona, New York, Scotland or other places in the world. So that is the head part. On the heart part, I absolutely agree with what he is saying.

My point is that the Government have reached this juncture, and we are about to go into Report, the Bill is going to happen and there is a consensus, whether I like it or not. Given that we have some enduring concerns about court capacity and the ability of the court system to deal with any concomitant legislation which might arise from the Bill—which will become an Act in the not-too-distant future—I feel that his amendment, while extremely well-meaning and very sincere, will not help deliver what we want, which is fairness and equity for tenants and landlords. It is only on that basis that I respectfully say that I do not support the amendment, and I suspect that the Government will take a similar view. I applaud the noble Lord for everything that he has done in raising these very important issues over many years.

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

My Amendment 281 has not been formally called, but if it is the wish of the House, I will address it. The other amendments, Amendments 279 and 280, have already been debated.

I was rather surprised to be asked again to declare my interests, because I have done so on several occasions already during the passage of the Bill. Oh, I am now being released. Anyway, my interests are disclosed in the register.

I therefore move on to a very responsible role that the noble Lord, Lord Bird, and I have, and that is of moving the last group of amendments in this Committee. It has been a long journey to get to this point, involving a lot of hard work by many Members of the House, but none more so than my noble friend the Minister, who has worked extremely hard throughout all the Committee sittings.

As usual, the noble Lord, Lord Bird, gave a very spirited speech. He spoke with great passion. It is always delightful to hear him, and I welcome him back. He was not here last night but he has given the spirited speech today. I am afraid that I do not agree with his rather simplistic description of the Conservative Party as running their policies based on baddie tenants, or that my party is running policies on baddie landlords. I know from debates in the House and discussions with the Minister that there has been a great effort by my party to produce a Bill which is fair and balanced. I am looking at the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, but she is not quite coming with me on this proposition. However, I believe that my noble friend the Minister largely has achieved that.

We have heard the noble Lord’s reasons for different commencement dates under the Bill. All my amendments go to Clause 145, on commencement. I have tabled Amendments 281, 287, 288 and 289. They all seek to give more time for the commencement of certain parts of the Bill. I draw attention to Amendment 288, which seeks to give more time, and different times for new tenancies, suggesting increasing the times to six months and, for existing tenancies, 12 months.

This is a problem that has been presented to me by estate agents. We all should understand how impactful this Bill is. Clause 1 of the Bill states that it applies to all tenancies—existing tenancies and new tenancies. In so far as it applies to existing tenancies, it applies to a great number of tenancies that are fixed term, many of which are shorthold. My wife and I use a 12-month fixed-term tenancy.

Estate agents have now got a very different role. Concerning new tenancies, that is okay. A new tenancy will be set up as a periodic tenancy with, ab initio, a new tenant. However, the existing tenancies produce different work for the estate agent. Under the present system of shorthold tenancies, the agent contacts the tenant and the landlord about three months before the expiration of the tenancy and checks whether the tenant wants to go for another period of tenancy and whether the landlord is agreeable to that. He also checks the position on the amount of rent. I do not know, and neither do many estate agents, what the new requirements will be. Is it proper for the estate agent to contact the tenant and ask, “How much longer do you want?” It is a periodic tenancy; there is no end date. Would it be proper for the estate agent to then engage the tenancy on the amount of rent? These are difficult decisions that have to be made.

In this modern age, these things have to be set up with software and the like, which is why I am asking my noble friend the Minister to give more time. All that has been asked of me, which I am now asking of noble Lords and, more directly, the Minister, is this: can we have more time, so that all the right procedures are set up and it does not end up being a scrambled egg?

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bird, and my noble friend Lord Hacking for their amendments relating to the commencement of measures in the Bill. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Deben and Lord Cromwell, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Grender and Lady Scott, for participating in this group.

I turn to Amendments 278, 282, 286, and 291 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Bird. I add my tribute for all the work he does to tackle homelessness. He is a great hero of mine, and it is a great privilege to work with him. The noble Lord rightly notes the importance of ending Section 21, which is a major contributor to homelessness levels in England and a major cost to councils, which now spend more than £2 billion a year on temporary accommodation. That was the last full year’s figure. I heard that £4 million a day is currently spent on homelessness in London. Much of that is driven by Section 21 evictions. As well as the misery created for individuals and families, these evictions put pressure on the public purse and costs that would be much better spent on other public services.

These amendments seek to bring most of the measures in the Renters’ Rights Bill forward to Royal Assent. The Government agree with the noble Lord that the measures in this Bill are urgently needed, which is why we moved swiftly to introduce it early in our first legislative programme for government. To end the scourge of Section 21 evictions as quickly as possible, we will introduce the new tenancy for the private rented sector in one stage. On that date, the new tenancy system will apply to all private tenancies. Existing tenancies will convert to the new system, and any new tenancies signed on or after that date will be governed by the new rules. There will be no dither or delay, and the abolition of Section 21, fixed-term contracts, and other vital measures in the Bill will happen as quickly as possible.

However, we must do this in a responsible manner, as noble Lords have mentioned. We are therefore also committed to making sure that implementation takes place smoothly. As such, it is essential that wider work around the Bill is allowed to conclude before implementation takes place. That includes the production of guidance, updating court forms and making secondary legislation. For example, the information that landlords are required to give tenants in the written statement of terms will be set out in secondary legislation. Work is already under way on these matters. We need to get it right. We will appoint the date of implementation via secondary legislation, which is typical when commencing complex primary legislation. This will allow us to give the sector certainty about when the system will come into force. Relying on Royal Assent would create significant uncertainty around the specific date, and it is important that we do not do that.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Bird, that I was lucky enough to benefit from the post-war Labour Government’s drive to build social housing so, although I could have done, I did not grow up in the kind of housing that he described. Our social housing was built in new towns, and that was the last time that social housing was built at any scale in this country. We have promised that again, and have committed £2 billion to social and affordable housing. So the noble Lord has my personal commitment that we will move this forward as quickly as possible.

The noble Lord, Lord Deben, talked about the speed of legislation. I have been a Minister for only a few months but I am already learning the frustration of time lags. I thought that councils move a bit too slowly at times, but we certainly need to move things forward more quickly. Of course, this is not just about legislation; we are trying to move on housing at some speed. We have already provided funding to improve construction skills, funding for planning officers, a new National Planning Policy Framework, over £500 million for homelessness and the social housing funding that I have already mentioned. We understand that this needs to be moved forward quickly. We will work as quickly as we can on that. As such, I ask the noble Lord not to press his amendments.

[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

I concur with the comments across the Chamber about what a professional job the Minister has done in piloting the Bill and engaging with Members. At Second Reading, she made specific reference to working closely with the Ministry of Justice on court digitalisation and extra funding for court costs. Is she in a position to update the Committee on what progress has been made on that? There are still people across the Committee who are concerned about the likely ramifications of the abolition of Section 21, whenever it happens.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I understand the noble Lord’s concern. There is ongoing dialogue with the Ministry of Justice, and I hope to be able to update Members before Report on where that has got to as soon as we are able to. I do not think it would be helpful to have a running commentary on it but my honourable friend the Minister for Housing is in dialogue at the moment with the MoJ. I will update noble Lords as soon as we get to the end of those discussions.

I turn to the amendments tabled by my noble friend Lord Hacking. Amendment 281 seeks to delay a number of provisions coming into force. The Bill currently provides that these provisions commence two months after Royal Assent. Two months is a well-established precedent, and I see no reason why commencement of these provisions should be delayed. For example, the provisions include important protections for tenants and provide local authorities with better powers to enforce housing standards.

Amendment 287 would set a time limit of 12 months between Royal Assent and the implementation of the Bill’s tenancy reforms in the private rented sector. Amendment 288 would change the approach to tenancy reform implementation in the Bill. It would require that the measures were applied to new tenancies no earlier than six months after Royal Assent and to existing tenancies no earlier than 12 months after Royal Assent. Amendment 289 would require that the conversion of existing tenancies to assured tenancies under the new tenancy reform system took place no earlier than 12 months after Royal Assent. As I have set out previously, we will end the scourge of Section 21 evictions as quickly as possible, and we will introduce the new tenancy for the private rented sector in one stage.

I assure my noble friend that this Government will ensure that the sector has adequate notice of the system taking effect but, in order to support tenants, landlords and agents to adjust, we will allow time for a smooth transition to the new system while making sure that tenants can benefit from the new system that they have waited so long for as soon as is realistically possible. We are planning a wide-ranging campaign to raise awareness of our reforms, supported by clear, straightforward and easy-to-read guidance to help landlords to prepare for change and to help tenants to be ready for it. On that basis, I ask my noble friend not to press his amendments.