Renters’ Rights Bill

Rebecca Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 9th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Rebecca Smith (South West Devon) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) on his maiden speech. He may be the first triplet I have ever met, so he can add that to his list of firsts.

I speak recognising that we want, understandably, to keep tenants safe and to ensure that those in the private rented sector have the security that we believe they deserve. However, I do worry that the Government’s good intentions in what they are seeking to achieve will actually leave us with no homes left to rent, or at least a significant reduction. Having worked in a homelessness team 20 years ago, I have seen at first hand the impact on those who are evicted. More recently, as the cabinet member for homes and communities, I had responsibility for homelessness, building safety, disabled facilities grants and the cross-party plan for homes that Plymouth city council has proudly worked through over the years.

I speak for tenants and landlords. No one can be responsible for homelessness and not want to ensure that people in vulnerable situations have the best opportunities. However, I also speak for the many excellent landlords in the city that I represent part of, not least those who are members of the South West Landlords Association, whose training I participated in while I was a cabinet member. They provide the vital rented homes that the city and the surrounding areas need, the loss of which will have an impact on the very tenants we are hoping to support.

None of this Bill will be relevant if there are no homes left to rent. Rightmove is currently claiming that there are 50 inquiries for every rental property in Plymouth. We also have 365 households in temporary accommodation, with 162 of those households in bed-and-breakfast accommodation. I am sad to say that those numbers have not really moved much in the last couple of years, because of the lack of private rented property. With this Bill, we may therefore be ignoring the dangers of the impacts on those tenants in temporary accommodation.

We need to ensure that the private rented market in cities such as Plymouth and the surrounding rural areas is fit for purpose, and at the moment it is completely broken. The fact that the homes are not necessarily always fit to in live is almost the least of the problems, because again, as I have said, if there are no homes to live in, people do not have anywhere to be.

[Markus Campbell-Savours]

This issue of landlords removing themselves from the sector was also brought up in the speech of the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel). What does the hon. Member think happens to properties when landlords remove themselves from the sector?

[Rebecca Smith]

The hon. Member makes a very good point, and that brings me on nicely to the next section of my speech. One of my constituents has recently written to me to say that he is very sadly, having been a landlord for the same tenants for 25 years, selling his entire portfolio of 89 properties. Sometimes, we do actually see—[Interruption.] Will the hon. Member allow me to finish? Thank you.

We sometimes see some really constructive solutions to these problems. For example, while I was a cabinet member on a Conservative council under the Conservative Government, Plymouth city council, Plymouth Community Homes and Homes England were able to work together to purchase 86 three-bedroom properties from Annington Homes, which is the supplier for the MOD. So the hon. Member is correct that there are some options. However, although my constituent has approached the council, there has currently been no movement. The point I want to make in this section of my speech is about what more Homes England could do to ensure that when landlords leave the market as an unintended consequence of this Bill, their properties are bought by local councils, although they may need the grants that Homes England has so generously provided in the past.

[Chris Curtis (Milton Keynes North) (Lab)]

Does the hon. Member think that the houses disappear when the landlords move out of the market? The bricks and mortar are still there. The problems in our housing market are caused by the lack of supply and by private landlords taking advantage. Such movement of homes in a fixed market is not going to cause the problems that I think she is suggesting.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rebecca Smith]

My experience has been that this does impact on the market. That is why the market in Plymouth has failed, in the words of the chief executive of the city council, because those properties often get bought by a family who may not have been—[Interruption.] No, let me finish. Such a family may have been in a privately owned property, not a privately rented one. I feel that we are speaking to the same point, but ultimately the market in the constituency I represent is not working. I am speaking only about the evidence I have seen for myself, but the 89 properties that are going to be sold will mean 89 further households needing temporary accommodation. It they have to be found further accommodation when there are 50 inquiries for every rental property in Plymouth, there is clearly a problem, although I do take the points that Labour Members have made.

[Naushabah Khan (Gillingham and Rainham) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Rebecca Smith]

I will.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. We need to reduce the number of interventions, because they eat into other Back Benchers’ time.

[Naushabah Khan]

I will be brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. Does the hon. Member recognise that a number properties are taken out of the private rented sector to be used as temporary accommodation because landlords are able to get a better deal, sometimes from councils, and that that also has an impact on the market?

[Rebecca Smith]

Yes, the hon. Lady is correct. That is part of the problem, and I go back to my point: it is why in cities such as Plymouth the private sector market is failing. Those temporary homes are needed for those who have been evicted from the private rented sector, and then we end up with them staying in temporary accommodation, rather than permanent homes. Ultimately, we are all seeking to achieve somewhere for people to live in the long term, not temporarily. I believe we all need that security, which is ultimately what the Bill is trying to achieve. I am just highlighting that if there is no supply, there are no homes for us to secure through this legislation.

I know that the Secretary of State recognises the important role of landlords, yet this Bill feels like a using sledgehammer to crack the nut of no-fault evictions and poor conditions, with significant unintended consequences, as the shadow Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for North West Essex (Mrs Badenoch), outlined. We will see properties leaving the market and therefore a further increase in the number of people not in accommodation. I take the House back to this figure: this Bill will increase, from 365 already, the number of households in the city I represent who are living in temporary accommodation.