Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of (a) limiting rent increases, (b) enhancing requirements for landlord entry on the Private Rented Sector Database, (c) restricting advance rent demands, (d) tightening conditions for requesting guarantors and (e) other measures to better protect renters while ensuring a balanced approach to landlord responsibilities.

The Renters’ Rights Bill will transform the experience of private renting in England. It will modernise the regulation of the private rented sector, levelling decisively the playing field between landlord and tenant.

It will empower renters by providing them with greater security, rights and protections so that they can stay in their homes for longer, build lives in their communities and avoid the risk of homelessness. It will ensure that we can drive up the quality of privately rented housing so that renters have access to good-quality and safe homes as a matter of course. It will also allow us to crack down on the minority of unscrupulous landlords who exploit, mistreat or discriminate against renters.

The Bill will also provide tangible benefits for responsible landlords who provide high-quality homes and a good service to their tenants, ensuring they enjoy simpler regulation and clear and expanded possession grounds, so that they can regain their properties quickly when necessary.

The Bill will empower private rented sector tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases. This will prevent unscrupulous landlords using rent increases as a backdoor means of eviction, while ensuring landlords can increase rents to reflect market rates.

Measures in the Bill mean a landlord will only be able to require up to one month's rent between a tenancy agreement being signed and that tenancy beginning. This will end an unfair practice which can place considerable financial strain on tenants and excludes some from renting altogether.

It will also require all private landlords letting residential property in England to register with the Private Rented Sector Database. We expect these landlords will include data about the ownership and standard of their properties as part of their entries, and we are exploring the feasibility of collecting a wider range of more tenancy-focused information. We will stipulate the specific requirements in regulations.

The Bill does not limit the ability of landlords to request a guarantor. The use of guarantors can support people renting for the first time to access the private rented sector. We will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders about any barriers to entering the private rented sector.