Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Thurlow Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Thurlow (CB)]

My Lords, I congratulate the two maiden speakers on their inspiring, eloquent and very interesting speeches. I want to inform the noble Lord, Lord Wilson, that he and I share something in common—I am sorry to see that he is not in his place. My grandfather was the vicar of Sedgefield more than 100 years ago. Furthermore, he also sat in this Chamber, so we have two special causes to celebrate together.

The Bill is big and ambitious, with far-reaching implications not only for occupiers and landlords but for the surveying profession—I should declare that I am, and was for decades, a chartered surveyor, working in this space to some extent. I also have two buy-to-let flats and advise a property development company that develops entry-level housing in England. The surveying profession will be involved; the Courts & Tribunals Service, as we have heard, and the ombudsman services will be dramatically affected. Social services will also be involved, as will, most of all in my opinion, local authorities. That said, I support most of the clauses in the Bill; it is a very welcome addition to the statute book.

Turning to those concerns, this Bill is going to frighten landlords. The noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, informed us of what has happened in Scotland. That is an excellent market test of what is going to happen here in England and Wales. I too live in Scotland. A nationwide firm of estate agents which specialises in letting property closed its office nearest to where I live after Section 21 was abolished in Scotland. I spoke to them about this, and they said that they did it simply because the market dried up for landlords or they withdrew. They closed their department. All those landlords either sold their properties—most of which would have become second homes—or turned them into holiday accommodation and Airbnb-type alternatives. The only losers were the tenant community, and they have nowhere else to turn—there is a terrible shortage of housing. Do not let us fall into that trap and let that happen here.

Ending fixed-term leases is a mistake. They do not have to be long leases, but there are a lot of enterprising individuals who want to criss-cross the country: they are on secondment; they are on a consultancy project; they might be digital nomads, moving between centres of excellence in their field. They know they are going to be somewhere for three or four years. There is no reason why they should not have a fixed-term contract. The landlord would appreciate it and benefit, and, of course, they would, too—they could call it “home”.

I am concerned about, as we have heard from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, the courts and tribunal services and the delays likely to result from the logjam of huge increases in the numbers of referrals and complaints. We underestimate the pressure on the ombudsman’s services as these new rules come into play; there will be an awful lot of call on their services.

The impact on local authorities is principally one of resourcing. They have a big role to play in this Bill; there are going to be legions of surveyors having to be trained up in the decent homes standard and the implications of the ability to operate Awaab’s law. There is going to be a significant increase in the need for computers, IT and digital recording, which will include ongoing maintenance. We are a country of some 50 million people—we are not a country like the Nordics, New Zealand or others, where they are dealing with 10% of the size of our population—and these recording systems are immensely expensive to maintain. We are asking local authorities to become policemen, and that is not their role. They will have to enforce the new rules and regulations, which is going to be culturally difficult and will require a lot more employment, training and resourcing. Who is going to pay for it? We know that the local authority system is basically bust financially.

Finally, I do not think that it will work to prohibit rental bidding. Unless I have misread the Bill—I apologise if that is the case—I think that all a landlord has to do to prevent being caught out on rental bidding is to quote an unreasonably high rent, way above estimated rental value, and let the market do its work through a Dutch auction and gazumping, or whatever else it might be. But perhaps I have missed something in the Bill.

In conclusion, I support most of the clauses of the Bill. I am concerned that some will not work, and I am certain that others need review, but I look forward to Committee very much indeed and to discussing all these matters.