Supporting Renters - Ending Section 21

I believe the insecurity of renting is one of the main problems with the current housing market where tenants are afraid to report problems and are forced to move at short notice. I have long supported calls for more rights and better protections for tenants, including an end to section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions to stop landlords from terminating tenancies with minimal justification.

I welcome proposals in the White Paper on Renters’ Reform, including plans to abolish ‘no fault’ evictions and introduce a legally binding Decent Homes Standard – a minimum standard of housing conditions and facilities – in all privately rented homes.

However, I am concerned Ministers have been too slow to act. The Government committed to introducing renters’ reforms and scrapping ‘no fault’ evictions in 2019, yet three years on, I believe it is still not acting with the urgency required.

The Government ran a public consultation on introducing the Decent Homes Standard, which was scheduled to close on 14 October. While I appreciate that proposals for reform need to be considered and properly scrutinised, I believe tenants need protection now, which is why I am supporting calls for emergency legislation to end ‘no fault’ evictions.

More widely, I am concerned that the White Paper does not include any meaningful proposal to address the problem of unreasonable rent rises. Measures such as the one-year limit to rent increases are not good enough in my view.

According to Rightmove, private rents are rising at record rates, with average asking rents outside London rising by over 10% for the first time last year. With the end of section 21, the risk of evictions through unaffordable rent rises is likely to increase, which is why I am supporting calls for effective protections against this.

I believe the Government must avoid delay and bring forward the Renters’ Reform Bill as a matter of urgency to give tenants the protections they deserve and rightly expect.