Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimates she has made of the average cost of retrofitting UK homes with a current EPC rating within bands D to G, to meet a) the EPC C standard, b) the EPC A standard and C) the Future Homes standard.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Impact assessments for both Private and Social Rented Sector Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards are published on GOV.UK.
There are no current requirements for properties to meet EPC A.
The Future Homes Standard applies to new homes in England, requiring high energy efficiency and low-carbon heating to minimise the need for future retrofit.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to introduce reforms requiring greater transparency and accountability from letting agents regarding the operational condition of essential residential facilities before occupation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government expects landlords, and letting agents acting on their behalf, to let properties that are safe and meet appropriate standards.
Where tenants experience issues after moving in, they should first raise them with their landlord or agent. Tenants may also escalate complaints about letting agents to one of the two government-approved agent redress schemes: The Property Ombudsman or Property Redress. Where a property falls short of regulatory standards, including health and safety standards, tenants should contact their local housing authority.
The government is strengthening redress and standards in the sector, including through a new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman and a Code of Practice for residential property agents.
I otherwise refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made 12 October 2026 (HCWS363).
Asked by: Lord Cromwell (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the new database of all private rented housing, why the planned fee for landlords to join the PRS database is more than was proposed in the Renters' Rights Act 2025 impact assessment; what part of the fee will be allocated to local authorities; and how they plan to ensure that landlords are not being charged twice for the database and for a local selective licensing scheme.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As we approach implementation of the Register your rental property service, we will continue to take feedback from users and make continuous improvements to the service post launch, as is normal practice when developing digital services.
We know landlords with larger portfolios want enhanced functionality to manage their properties on the service. To fulfil this need, we are allowing a landlord or letting agent organisation to give appropriate members of staff access to manage the rental properties they are responsible for.
Following launch we will look at integration with systems used by organisational landlords, and will consider the viability of bulk payments for this group. We believe this approach would add greater value than manual bulk uploads, which we have concluded would not offer significant time savings for landlords.
We recognise that, for many landlords, agents are their primary source of advice and support. While responsibility for making and updating entries lies with landlords, agents will be well placed to help landlords understand registration requirements, maintain accurate property information, and ensure that landlords continue to meet their legal obligations.
From launch, we will allow for letting and property agents to support landlords by inputting some of the information required for the registration of properties. Landlords must initiate registration, but will be able to delegate to their letting or property agent to supply tenancy and health and safety information on their behalf if the agent agrees.
We are committed to ensuring the service is secure and to protecting the privacy of our users. We are using modern security tools to continuously protect the service, monitor it for vulnerabilities or suspicious activity, and help the team identify and respond to security issues. We have been assessing our services against the National Cyber Security Centre Cyber Assessment Framework, conducting penetration testing and working with MHCLG's Data Protection Officer to produce a Data Protection Impact Assessment, Data Sharing Agreements with local councils, and privacy statements for landlords, local councils and letting agent users.
Future legislation will set out which landlord and property records will be made available to the public and shared with any further organisations when the public-facing service is launched at a later date.
The digitisation of gas and electrical safety certificates is beyond the scope of the Register your rental property service. However, we will build the service in such a way that it is able to draw information from digitised datasets going forwards.
We recognise that the registration fee of £65 has been set at a higher level than the figures included in the full Impact Assessment published with the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. We intend to perform a full Impact Assessment ahead of stage two of implementation where we can consider the impacts and benefits which come from the public interface.
The government has set the fee at a level that balances fairness and sustainability for landlords with the relevant costs of operating the service and tackling non-compliance in the private rented sector. Fee income will support enforcement activity, helping councils build the staff and skills needed to identify and tackle non-compliance, exercise their legal powers, and compliance and drive landlords who persistently break the law out of the sector
We are clear in guidance that local councils should be mindful of any cost impacts to landlords in setting fees for selective licensing schemes, particularly those who are already fully compliant with their obligations. Selective licensing is a separate regime to the service, and licence fees set by local councils are designed to ensure that the costs of operating licensing schemes are covered. As such, there is no overlap between these fees and registration fees for the service. However, we are continuing to review the use of selective licensing as we develop the Register your rental property service to prevent duplication.
Asked by: Lord Cromwell (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the new database of all private rented housing, what plans they have to make arrangements for letting agents, on whom many landlords rely in order to remain compliant, to begin the process of registering landlords on the database, and what is the timetable for this coming into effect.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As we approach implementation of the Register your rental property service, we will continue to take feedback from users and make continuous improvements to the service post launch, as is normal practice when developing digital services.
We know landlords with larger portfolios want enhanced functionality to manage their properties on the service. To fulfil this need, we are allowing a landlord or letting agent organisation to give appropriate members of staff access to manage the rental properties they are responsible for.
Following launch we will look at integration with systems used by organisational landlords, and will consider the viability of bulk payments for this group. We believe this approach would add greater value than manual bulk uploads, which we have concluded would not offer significant time savings for landlords.
We recognise that, for many landlords, agents are their primary source of advice and support. While responsibility for making and updating entries lies with landlords, agents will be well placed to help landlords understand registration requirements, maintain accurate property information, and ensure that landlords continue to meet their legal obligations.
From launch, we will allow for letting and property agents to support landlords by inputting some of the information required for the registration of properties. Landlords must initiate registration, but will be able to delegate to their letting or property agent to supply tenancy and health and safety information on their behalf if the agent agrees.
We are committed to ensuring the service is secure and to protecting the privacy of our users. We are using modern security tools to continuously protect the service, monitor it for vulnerabilities or suspicious activity, and help the team identify and respond to security issues. We have been assessing our services against the National Cyber Security Centre Cyber Assessment Framework, conducting penetration testing and working with MHCLG's Data Protection Officer to produce a Data Protection Impact Assessment, Data Sharing Agreements with local councils, and privacy statements for landlords, local councils and letting agent users.
Future legislation will set out which landlord and property records will be made available to the public and shared with any further organisations when the public-facing service is launched at a later date.
The digitisation of gas and electrical safety certificates is beyond the scope of the Register your rental property service. However, we will build the service in such a way that it is able to draw information from digitised datasets going forwards.
We recognise that the registration fee of £65 has been set at a higher level than the figures included in the full Impact Assessment published with the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. We intend to perform a full Impact Assessment ahead of stage two of implementation where we can consider the impacts and benefits which come from the public interface.
The government has set the fee at a level that balances fairness and sustainability for landlords with the relevant costs of operating the service and tackling non-compliance in the private rented sector. Fee income will support enforcement activity, helping councils build the staff and skills needed to identify and tackle non-compliance, exercise their legal powers, and compliance and drive landlords who persistently break the law out of the sector
We are clear in guidance that local councils should be mindful of any cost impacts to landlords in setting fees for selective licensing schemes, particularly those who are already fully compliant with their obligations. Selective licensing is a separate regime to the service, and licence fees set by local councils are designed to ensure that the costs of operating licensing schemes are covered. As such, there is no overlap between these fees and registration fees for the service. However, we are continuing to review the use of selective licensing as we develop the Register your rental property service to prevent duplication.
Asked by: Lord Cromwell (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the new database of all private rented housing, what consideration they have given to enabling the database as a tool for applying for licenses from local authorities without having to re-enter the same data.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As we approach implementation of the Register your rental property service, we will continue to take feedback from users and make continuous improvements to the service post launch, as is normal practice when developing digital services.
We know landlords with larger portfolios want enhanced functionality to manage their properties on the service. To fulfil this need, we are allowing a landlord or letting agent organisation to give appropriate members of staff access to manage the rental properties they are responsible for.
Following launch we will look at integration with systems used by organisational landlords, and will consider the viability of bulk payments for this group. We believe this approach would add greater value than manual bulk uploads, which we have concluded would not offer significant time savings for landlords.
We recognise that, for many landlords, agents are their primary source of advice and support. While responsibility for making and updating entries lies with landlords, agents will be well placed to help landlords understand registration requirements, maintain accurate property information, and ensure that landlords continue to meet their legal obligations.
From launch, we will allow for letting and property agents to support landlords by inputting some of the information required for the registration of properties. Landlords must initiate registration, but will be able to delegate to their letting or property agent to supply tenancy and health and safety information on their behalf if the agent agrees.
We are committed to ensuring the service is secure and to protecting the privacy of our users. We are using modern security tools to continuously protect the service, monitor it for vulnerabilities or suspicious activity, and help the team identify and respond to security issues. We have been assessing our services against the National Cyber Security Centre Cyber Assessment Framework, conducting penetration testing and working with MHCLG's Data Protection Officer to produce a Data Protection Impact Assessment, Data Sharing Agreements with local councils, and privacy statements for landlords, local councils and letting agent users.
Future legislation will set out which landlord and property records will be made available to the public and shared with any further organisations when the public-facing service is launched at a later date.
The digitisation of gas and electrical safety certificates is beyond the scope of the Register your rental property service. However, we will build the service in such a way that it is able to draw information from digitised datasets going forwards.
We recognise that the registration fee of £65 has been set at a higher level than the figures included in the full Impact Assessment published with the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. We intend to perform a full Impact Assessment ahead of stage two of implementation where we can consider the impacts and benefits which come from the public interface.
The government has set the fee at a level that balances fairness and sustainability for landlords with the relevant costs of operating the service and tackling non-compliance in the private rented sector. Fee income will support enforcement activity, helping councils build the staff and skills needed to identify and tackle non-compliance, exercise their legal powers, and compliance and drive landlords who persistently break the law out of the sector
We are clear in guidance that local councils should be mindful of any cost impacts to landlords in setting fees for selective licensing schemes, particularly those who are already fully compliant with their obligations. Selective licensing is a separate regime to the service, and licence fees set by local councils are designed to ensure that the costs of operating licensing schemes are covered. As such, there is no overlap between these fees and registration fees for the service. However, we are continuing to review the use of selective licensing as we develop the Register your rental property service to prevent duplication.
Asked by: Lord Cromwell (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the new database of all private rented housing, what consideration they have given to including digitised gas and electrical safety certificates in the database as key information relevant to landlords, tenants and relevant authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As we approach implementation of the Register your rental property service, we will continue to take feedback from users and make continuous improvements to the service post launch, as is normal practice when developing digital services.
We know landlords with larger portfolios want enhanced functionality to manage their properties on the service. To fulfil this need, we are allowing a landlord or letting agent organisation to give appropriate members of staff access to manage the rental properties they are responsible for.
Following launch we will look at integration with systems used by organisational landlords, and will consider the viability of bulk payments for this group. We believe this approach would add greater value than manual bulk uploads, which we have concluded would not offer significant time savings for landlords.
We recognise that, for many landlords, agents are their primary source of advice and support. While responsibility for making and updating entries lies with landlords, agents will be well placed to help landlords understand registration requirements, maintain accurate property information, and ensure that landlords continue to meet their legal obligations.
From launch, we will allow for letting and property agents to support landlords by inputting some of the information required for the registration of properties. Landlords must initiate registration, but will be able to delegate to their letting or property agent to supply tenancy and health and safety information on their behalf if the agent agrees.
We are committed to ensuring the service is secure and to protecting the privacy of our users. We are using modern security tools to continuously protect the service, monitor it for vulnerabilities or suspicious activity, and help the team identify and respond to security issues. We have been assessing our services against the National Cyber Security Centre Cyber Assessment Framework, conducting penetration testing and working with MHCLG's Data Protection Officer to produce a Data Protection Impact Assessment, Data Sharing Agreements with local councils, and privacy statements for landlords, local councils and letting agent users.
Future legislation will set out which landlord and property records will be made available to the public and shared with any further organisations when the public-facing service is launched at a later date.
The digitisation of gas and electrical safety certificates is beyond the scope of the Register your rental property service. However, we will build the service in such a way that it is able to draw information from digitised datasets going forwards.
We recognise that the registration fee of £65 has been set at a higher level than the figures included in the full Impact Assessment published with the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. We intend to perform a full Impact Assessment ahead of stage two of implementation where we can consider the impacts and benefits which come from the public interface.
The government has set the fee at a level that balances fairness and sustainability for landlords with the relevant costs of operating the service and tackling non-compliance in the private rented sector. Fee income will support enforcement activity, helping councils build the staff and skills needed to identify and tackle non-compliance, exercise their legal powers, and compliance and drive landlords who persistently break the law out of the sector
We are clear in guidance that local councils should be mindful of any cost impacts to landlords in setting fees for selective licensing schemes, particularly those who are already fully compliant with their obligations. Selective licensing is a separate regime to the service, and licence fees set by local councils are designed to ensure that the costs of operating licensing schemes are covered. As such, there is no overlap between these fees and registration fees for the service. However, we are continuing to review the use of selective licensing as we develop the Register your rental property service to prevent duplication.
Asked by: Lord Cromwell (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the new database of all private rented housing, what assessment they have made of system security and the potential for staff in some agencies to access sensitive personal information about landlords that these staff do not need.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As we approach implementation of the Register your rental property service, we will continue to take feedback from users and make continuous improvements to the service post launch, as is normal practice when developing digital services.
We know landlords with larger portfolios want enhanced functionality to manage their properties on the service. To fulfil this need, we are allowing a landlord or letting agent organisation to give appropriate members of staff access to manage the rental properties they are responsible for.
Following launch we will look at integration with systems used by organisational landlords, and will consider the viability of bulk payments for this group. We believe this approach would add greater value than manual bulk uploads, which we have concluded would not offer significant time savings for landlords.
We recognise that, for many landlords, agents are their primary source of advice and support. While responsibility for making and updating entries lies with landlords, agents will be well placed to help landlords understand registration requirements, maintain accurate property information, and ensure that landlords continue to meet their legal obligations.
From launch, we will allow for letting and property agents to support landlords by inputting some of the information required for the registration of properties. Landlords must initiate registration, but will be able to delegate to their letting or property agent to supply tenancy and health and safety information on their behalf if the agent agrees.
We are committed to ensuring the service is secure and to protecting the privacy of our users. We are using modern security tools to continuously protect the service, monitor it for vulnerabilities or suspicious activity, and help the team identify and respond to security issues. We have been assessing our services against the National Cyber Security Centre Cyber Assessment Framework, conducting penetration testing and working with MHCLG's Data Protection Officer to produce a Data Protection Impact Assessment, Data Sharing Agreements with local councils, and privacy statements for landlords, local councils and letting agent users.
Future legislation will set out which landlord and property records will be made available to the public and shared with any further organisations when the public-facing service is launched at a later date.
The digitisation of gas and electrical safety certificates is beyond the scope of the Register your rental property service. However, we will build the service in such a way that it is able to draw information from digitised datasets going forwards.
We recognise that the registration fee of £65 has been set at a higher level than the figures included in the full Impact Assessment published with the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. We intend to perform a full Impact Assessment ahead of stage two of implementation where we can consider the impacts and benefits which come from the public interface.
The government has set the fee at a level that balances fairness and sustainability for landlords with the relevant costs of operating the service and tackling non-compliance in the private rented sector. Fee income will support enforcement activity, helping councils build the staff and skills needed to identify and tackle non-compliance, exercise their legal powers, and compliance and drive landlords who persistently break the law out of the sector
We are clear in guidance that local councils should be mindful of any cost impacts to landlords in setting fees for selective licensing schemes, particularly those who are already fully compliant with their obligations. Selective licensing is a separate regime to the service, and licence fees set by local councils are designed to ensure that the costs of operating licensing schemes are covered. As such, there is no overlap between these fees and registration fees for the service. However, we are continuing to review the use of selective licensing as we develop the Register your rental property service to prevent duplication.
Asked by: Lord Cromwell (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the new database of all private rented housing, whether there will be a facility to bulk upload data on properties to the database using a standard format; and if not, whether landlords, including corporate build-to-rent providers who let thousands of properties, will be required to provide details of their individual properties manually.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As we approach implementation of the Register your rental property service, we will continue to take feedback from users and make continuous improvements to the service post launch, as is normal practice when developing digital services.
We know landlords with larger portfolios want enhanced functionality to manage their properties on the service. To fulfil this need, we are allowing a landlord or letting agent organisation to give appropriate members of staff access to manage the rental properties they are responsible for.
Following launch we will look at integration with systems used by organisational landlords, and will consider the viability of bulk payments for this group. We believe this approach would add greater value than manual bulk uploads, which we have concluded would not offer significant time savings for landlords.
We recognise that, for many landlords, agents are their primary source of advice and support. While responsibility for making and updating entries lies with landlords, agents will be well placed to help landlords understand registration requirements, maintain accurate property information, and ensure that landlords continue to meet their legal obligations.
From launch, we will allow for letting and property agents to support landlords by inputting some of the information required for the registration of properties. Landlords must initiate registration, but will be able to delegate to their letting or property agent to supply tenancy and health and safety information on their behalf if the agent agrees.
We are committed to ensuring the service is secure and to protecting the privacy of our users. We are using modern security tools to continuously protect the service, monitor it for vulnerabilities or suspicious activity, and help the team identify and respond to security issues. We have been assessing our services against the National Cyber Security Centre Cyber Assessment Framework, conducting penetration testing and working with MHCLG's Data Protection Officer to produce a Data Protection Impact Assessment, Data Sharing Agreements with local councils, and privacy statements for landlords, local councils and letting agent users.
Future legislation will set out which landlord and property records will be made available to the public and shared with any further organisations when the public-facing service is launched at a later date.
The digitisation of gas and electrical safety certificates is beyond the scope of the Register your rental property service. However, we will build the service in such a way that it is able to draw information from digitised datasets going forwards.
We recognise that the registration fee of £65 has been set at a higher level than the figures included in the full Impact Assessment published with the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. We intend to perform a full Impact Assessment ahead of stage two of implementation where we can consider the impacts and benefits which come from the public interface.
The government has set the fee at a level that balances fairness and sustainability for landlords with the relevant costs of operating the service and tackling non-compliance in the private rented sector. Fee income will support enforcement activity, helping councils build the staff and skills needed to identify and tackle non-compliance, exercise their legal powers, and compliance and drive landlords who persistently break the law out of the sector
We are clear in guidance that local councils should be mindful of any cost impacts to landlords in setting fees for selective licensing schemes, particularly those who are already fully compliant with their obligations. Selective licensing is a separate regime to the service, and licence fees set by local councils are designed to ensure that the costs of operating licensing schemes are covered. As such, there is no overlap between these fees and registration fees for the service. However, we are continuing to review the use of selective licensing as we develop the Register your rental property service to prevent duplication.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what consideration she has given to the potential merits of requiring tenancy agreements to include a plain-English summary section to improve comprehensibility for landlords and tenants.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Regulations came into force on 1 May 2026 requiring private rented sector landlords to provide specified information in writing to tenants at the outset of new Assured Periodic Tenancies. We expect landlords will include this information in written tenancy agreements so that tenants receive key information about the terms and conditions of their tenancy. Guidance on what information should be included can be found on gov.uk here.
The government does not consider it appropriate to mandate a specific tenancy agreement template or wording. A single approach will not be suitable for every tenancy, and landlords and tenants should be able to agree terms that reflect their individual circumstances. Landlords should ensure tenants have sufficient opportunity to understand, or seek advice on, the terms of any tenancy agreement before entering into it.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to retain responsible landlords in the private rented sector.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 9826 on 24 June 2026