Renters Reform Bill U-turn by tenant activists

The coalition of 20-plus groups which have previously spoken enthusiastically about the Renters Reform Bill has now changed its mind.

On April 15 - just 10 days ago - the Renters Reform Coalition spoke enthusiastically about the Bill, even though at the time it was known that the government was seeking to amend it to make it fairer. 

So on April 15 the Coalition announced on its website: “It is also important not to lose sight of the bigger picture. That this government has brought forward legislation aimed at regulating the private sector, with the stated goal of improving the rights of tenants, is no mean feat – and it is in no small part down to the overwhelming public support for reform and tireless campaigning from the renters’ movement. There are those who would happily have let reform fall off the agenda, so the fact renting remains a key political issue heading into the next election, is to the hard work and resilience of all those that have been part of the struggle for renters’ rights.”

However, fast forward to yesterday and the coalition has done a 180-degree turn.

Now it says: “As groups representing and working alongside private tenants in England, our concerns have not been taken seriously. It is revealing that ministers have met with lobbyists for landlords and estate agents twice as often as they have met groups representing renters. 

“Instead of engaging with us, the bill has been watered down again and again by the government, with several rounds of damaging concessions to backbench MPs that have fundamentally weakened it. The amendments tabled recently by the government are just the final straw.

“The result of all the government’s backtracking is that we have now have a bill that abolishes section 21 in name only – there is no guarantee it would ever fully abolish section 21, and even then the new tenancy system set to replace it will be little better. This legislation is intended to give the impression of improving conditions for renters, but in fact it preserves the central power imbalance at the root of why renting in England is in crisis.”

The Coalition - which includes a mix of organisations including the London Renters Union, the Greater Manchester Renters Union and the National Union of Students - says it is setting out conditions for future reforms to win its support.

These are (in the Coalition’s words): 

- Reversing the concessions to the Bill made to backbench MPs which see the end of section 21 delayed indefinitely, trapping tenants into tenancy for 6 months, and reviewing selective licensing to reduce the burden on landlords;  

- Giving tenants 4 months’ notice when they are evicted, rather than 2 months’ notice proposed at present (and which is the same as the status quo for section 21 evictions);

- Protecting renters from eviction under the new landlord circumstances grounds for the first two years of a tenancy, rather than the 6 months proposed which offers no improvement on the status quo;

- Implementing strong safeguards to prevent unscrupulous landlords abusing the new grounds for eviction, which risk being used in essentially the same way as section 21 notices;

- Giving courts maximum discretion to identify if there are good reasons why an eviction should not take place;

- Limiting in-tenancy rent increases at the lowest of either inflation or wage growth, to prevent unaffordable rent increases being no-fault ‘economic’ evictions. 

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