Housing Secretary Michael Gove says he “cannot guarantee” that the Rental Reform Bill will get its Second Reading immediately after Parliament resumes.
When MPs return to work after the conferences there is only a brief period when the Commons sits before the King’s Speech, outlining future business, on November 7.
It is thought that if the Rental Reform Bill doesn’t get its Second Reading by the King’s Speech, it’s process through the Commons goes back to square one - meaning it needs another First Reading, as the Bill originally received back in May.
Gove’s “cannot guarantee” comment was made in a brief conversation at the end of the Tory conference with Ben Twomey, chief executive of activist group Generation Rent.
“We’ve made the case, got the promises, now we need to see results” says Twomey.
Speaking at a Tory conference fringe meeting this week Gove said speculation that some Tory backbenchers opposed the Bill did not reflect the government’s thinking.
The Bill will go ahead, he said.
The government first committed to abolishing Section 21 in April 2019.
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Let’s hope they’ve decided to put it in the bin where it belongs and Labour don’t get in.
With Ben Twomay
It's a rediculous bill giving all rights to tenants and all responsibility to LL. We need a balanced approach. Section 21 is most often used even when tenants are far behind with their rent because if section 8 is used just before court date the tenant miraculously finds just enough of the arrears to stop the case from proceeding. Then they fall back into further arrears forcing LL to repeat the process. Much easier to just do the section 21 and tenant moves out. LL can clean up properly and rent to a tenant who will pay their rent on time.
When I have served Section 21 notices on tenants they have just ignored them, resulting in my having to take further action, at more cost to remove them.
The last tenant I had in one of my properties just left without any forwarding address and I had to apply to the court to get a possession order. He ignored my attempts to contact him and changed his mobile and email address, I now have to pay to get the electric and gas back on which was disconnected. That has turned out to be far from easy, dealing with EON.
I am almost £10,000 out of pocket.
Perhaps our gormless government, along with levelling down secretary Gove are /have concluded that they are in a hole so best to stop digging in the hope it will all go away and they will wake up from the nightmare they are and have caused to landlords and tenants alike.
I have this slow motion feeling a disaster is afoot. The government and a couple of charities are banking on landlords not selling. A big risk indeed.
I have a bad feeling the PRS will collapse as landlords reinvest elsewhere eg NS&I @6.1%. Then a rent cap will be introduced on a PRS sector that, in truth, will no longer exist.
The PRS disaster will put vote changing pressure on any government in power to build more affordable, energy-efficient flats.
England needs 300,000 affordable houses a year. The London Mayor revealed City Hall has funded 10,000 new council house starts across the English capital in 2022/23. The remainder of the country had only 4,325 council house starts across the rest of England in 2021/22. These figures only make me believe the disaster is truly afoot and a perfect storm of social unrest is closing in on the Minister's threshold.
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