Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to further control the ability of private landlords to evict tenants at short notice.

The Government recently introduced protection for tenants from unfair eviction where they have made a legitimate complaint about the condition of their home. We have also introduced measures to ensure fairness for landlords, making the eviction process more straightforward in appropriate circumstances such as the persistant non-payment of rent. We believe that the current approach strikes a fair balance between the rights of landlords and tenants and do not have any plans to introduce further restrictions on a landlord’s ability to evict a tenant.

The Housing and Planning Bill introduced on 13 October contains a range of measures that are intended to crack down on criminal landlords, thereby helping to improve the sector and ensure tenants get a better deal. There will be a blacklist of rogue landlords and letting agents, banning orders for the most prolific and serious offenders, civil penalties of up to £5,000 for certain breaches of housing legislation, Rent Repayment Orders to cover situations where a tenant has been illegally evicted or the landlord has failed to rectify a serious health and safety hazard in the property, and a tougher fit and proper person test for landlords letting out licensed properties, such as Houses in Multiple Occupation.