What is Labour’s Renters Rights Bill – and will it end no-fault evictions?
The Renters Reform Bill is back in the commons, five years and four prime ministers after it was first promised.
This time it’s Labour’s version – with the new party of government vowing to improve and complete the set of proposals the Tories pledged, then watered down, and then abandoned altogether before the general election.
Now, it is being called the Renters Rights Bill, and it aims to “decisively level the playing field between landlords and tenants”, according to housing minister Matthew Pennycook.
Here Sky News takes a look at what will be in the legislation.
No-fault evictions banned
Crucially, the legislation will include a blanket ban on no-fault evictions under Section 21 (S21) of the 1988 Housing Act.
This allows landlords to evict tenants with two months’ notice without providing a reason.
Housing campaigners say they are a major contributing factor to rising homelessness.
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One million renters forced to move
Former Conservative prime minister Theresa May made the pledge to scrap S21 notices on 15 April 2019, and it was also in her successor Boris Johnson’s manifesto.
But the Tories went on to announce an indefinite delay to the plan to ban them, pending court reforms, following pressure from backbench landlord MPs.
The early timing of the general election meant the plans were ultimately ditched, but Labour confirmed in its first King’s Speech it would build on the Tories’ legislation with a strengthened version of the original bill.
The new government will ban Section 21 evictions for both new and existing tenancies, with the new system expected to be in place by summer, Mr Pennycook said.
He told LBC that this means landlords will not be able to “arbitrarily evict any tenant with a Section 21 notice, including tenants that make complaints about things like damp and mould, rather than fix those problems”.
Landlords will still be able to evict tenants if they have a legal reason, such as if the tenant is in several months’ rent arrears or commits anti-social behaviour.
Awaab’s law extended
Awaab Ishak
Awaab’s Law was named after the toddler who died after exposure to mould in his family’s social rented home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
It proposed that social landlords will have to investigate hazards within 14 days, fix them within a further seven, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours.
Under Labour’s Renters Rights Bill, this will be extended to the private sector to ensure all landlords speedily address hazards and make homes safe.
Plans to make homes safer also include applying a Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for the first time.
The government said 21% of privately rented homes are currently classified as “non-decent” and more than 500,000 contain the most serious hazards.
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Social home health rules to tighten
Landlords who fail to address serious hazards will be fined up to £7,000 by local councils and may face prosecution for non-compliance, the government said.
A new Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman will also be introduced to “provide quick and binding resolutions” about complaints, alongside a database to help landlords understand their legal obligations and demonstrate compliance.
Ban on mid-tenancy rent increases
The bill will also ban rent increases being written into contracts to prevent mid-tenancy hikes, leaving landlords only able to raise rent once a year at the market rate.
However, rent campaigners want the government to go further and introduce rent controls amid a spiralling affordability crisis.
Analysis of government figures by housing charity Shelter found England’s private renters have paid an extra £473 million pounds every month on rent in 2024 – an average of £103 more per month than they were paying in 2023.
Labour has ruled out rent controls, saying their plan to build more homes will bring prices down.
But the government said they will make it easier for people to challenge excessive rent hikes which could force them out.
This will be done by reforming the First Tier Tribunal so it can’t actually demand more than what the landlord initially asked for when tenants complain.
The government will also end backdated increases if the watchdog rules in the landlords’ favour, and allow rent increases to be deferred by two months in cases of hardship.
Allowing pets
Labour’s reforms will also give tenants the strengthened right to request a pet, which landlords must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse.
Activists from Shelter stage a protest in Parliament Square over delays to the Renters Reform Bill. Pic: PA
There are currently no specific laws in place when it comes to renting with pets, but landlords can decline if they have a valid reason.
To support landlords, the Renters Rights Bill will give them the right to request insurance to cover potential damage from pets if needed.
Bidding wars crackdown
The reforms also crack down on bidding wars between potential tenants.
Bidding wars for rental properties have become increasingly common amid a chronic shortage of supply, with tenants typically paying an extra £100 a month above the asking price for their home last year, according to research by the New Economics Foundation.
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Bristol renters face frenzied competition
Labour’s bill will include a legal requirement for landlords and letting agents to publish the required rent for a property.
Landlords and agents will be banned from “asking for, encouraging, or accepting any bids” above the publicly stated price.
Similar laws have been passed in other countries facing a housing crisis, such as New Zealand.
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Tenancy reform
The bill will remove fixed-term assured tenancies, which mean renters are obliged to pay rent regardless of whether a property is up-to-standard and prevent them from easily moving out in response to changing circumstances, such as a relationship breakdown or new job.
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Instead, all tenancies will be periodic, with tenants able to stay in their home until they decide to end the tenancy by giving 2 months’ notice.
When a landlord’s circumstance changes, such as their need to sell up or move into the property, they will have to give four months’ notice instead of two.
All renters will get a 12-month protected period at the beginning of a tenancy, during which landlords cannot evict them on these grounds.
Ban on benefit discrimination
The bill will also outlaw landlords imposing a blanket ban on tenants receiving benefits or with children.
According to Shelter, one in five families have been unable to rent somewhere in England because they have kids.
Meanwhile, the English Private Landlord Survey, covering the period of 2021 to 2022, found one in 10 private renters – around 109,000 households – had been refused a tenancy because they received benefits.
While specific cases of this have been found to have breached the Equality Act in court, the new law will explicitly ban these forms of discrimination “to ensure fair access to housing for all”.
UK
Facewatch: The controversial tech that retailers have deployed to tackle shoplifting and violence
The Christmas period is upon us, and goods are flying off the shelves, but for some reason, the tills are not ringing as loudly as they should be.
Across the country, the five-finger discount is being used with such frequency that retailers are taking action into their own hands.
With concerns about the police response to shoplifting, many are now resorting to controversial facial recognition technology to catch culprits before they strike.
Sainsbury’s, Asda, Budgens and Sports Direct are among the high-street businesses that have signed up to Facewatch, a cloud-based facial recognition security system that scans faces as they enter a store. Those images are then compared to a database of known offenders and, if a match is found, an alert is set off to warn the business that a shoplifter has entered the premises.
It comes as official figures show shoplifting offences rose by 13% in the year to June, reaching almost 530,000 incidents. Figures reported in August showed more than 80% result in no charge.
At the same time, retailers are reporting more than 2,000 cases of violence or abuse against their staff every day. Faced with mounting losses and safety concerns, businesses say they are being forced to take security into their own hands because stretched police forces are only able to respond to a fraction of incidents.
A Facewatch camera
At Ruxley Manor Garden Centre in south London, managing director James Evans said theft had become increasingly brazen and organised, with losses from shoplifting now accounting for around 1.5% of turnover. “That may sound small, but it represents a significant hit to the bottom line,” he said, pointing out that thousands of pounds’ worth of goods can be stolen in a single visit.
“We have had instances where the children get sent in to do it. They know that the parents will be waiting in the car park and they’ll know that there’s nothing that we can do to stop them.”
Gurpreet Narwan is seen at the garden centre while being shown how Facewatch works
Staff members here have also had their fair share of run-ins with shoplifters. In one case, employees trying to stop a suspected shoplifter were nearly struck by an accomplice in a car. “This is no longer just about stock loss,” said James, “It is about the safety of our staff.”
However, the technology is not without its critics. Civil liberties groups have warned that the expansion of this type of technology is eroding our privacy.
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, called it “a very dangerous kind of privatised policing industry”.
Facewatch is seen in operation as retailers look to crack down on crime.
“[It] really threatens fairness and justice for us all, because now it’s the case that just going to do your supermarket shopping, a company is quietly taking your very sensitive biometric data. That’s data that’s as sensitive as your passport, and [it’s] making a judgement about whether you’re a criminal or not.”
Silkie said the organisation was routinely receiving messages from people who said they had been mistakenly targeted. They include Rennea Nelson, who was wrongly flagged as a shoplifter at a B&M store after being mistakenly added to the facial recognition database. Nelson said she was threatened with police action and warned that her immigration status could be at risk.
Gurpreet’s profile can be seen on the Facewatch database
“He said to me, if you don’t get out, I’m going to call the police. So at that point I turned around and I was like, are you speaking to me? Then he was like yes, yes, your face set off the alarm because you’re a thief… At that point, I was around six to seven months pregnant and I was having a high-risk pregnancy. I was already going through a lot of anxiety and, so him coming over and shouting at me, it was like really triggering me.”
The retailer later acknowledged the error and apologised, describing it as a rare case of human mistake.
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A spokesperson for B&M said: ‘This was a simple case of human error, and we sincerely apologise to Ms Nelson for any upset caused. Reported incidents like this are rare. Facewatch services are designed to operate strictly in compliance with UK GDPR and to help protect store colleagues from incidents of aggressive shoplifting.”
The cloud-based technology has critics who argue that it amounts to a misuse of personal data and privacy
Nick Fisher, chief executive of Facewatch, said the backlash was disproportionate.
“Well, I think it’s designed to be quite alarmist, using language like ‘dystopian’, ‘orwellian’, ‘turning people into barcodes’,” he said.
“The inference of that is that we will identify people using biometric technology, hold and store their own, store their data. And that’s just, quite frankly, misleading. We only store and retain data of known repeat offenders, of which it’s been deemed to be proportionate and responsible to do so… I think in the world that we are currently operating in, as long as the technology is used and managed in a responsible, proportionate way, I can only see it being a force for good.”
Yet, there is obviously widespread unease, if not anger, at the proliferation of this technology. Businesses are obviously alert to it, but the bottom line is calling.
Jeffrey Epstein led two different lives – sex offender and celebrity networker – and he did that in the UK as well as the US.
The newly released Epstein documents reveal, in particular, how the paedophile financier ascended into the highest levels of British society.
This photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sprawled across the lap of several women, whose identities have been protected, speaks to his close relationship with Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed for child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with Epstein. But the furnishings are even more revealing.
Epstein files – latest updates
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell. Note: inclusion in Epstein files does not infer wrongdoing
Sky News matched the fireplace in this photo with the one in Sandringham, the estate where the royals tend to spend Christmas – (Andrew is not invited this year).
Andrew has vigorously denied any accusations against him.
Prince Charles, now King Charles III, at Sandringham with Prince Edward. Pic: PA
Also included in the latest release are Epstein’s flight records. They provide some useful corroborating evidence.
A flight log from the Epstein files
On 9 March 2001, his plane landed at “EGGW” – Luton Airport – with JE, GM and VR on board – Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Roberts, better known by her married name of Virginia Giuffre and perhaps Epstein’s most famous accuser.
The next day is when this photo was alleged to have been taken, in London, of Giuffre and Andrew.
Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Ghislaine Maxwell’s townhouse in London, in March 2001
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell hunting, date unknown. Pic: US DoJ
Other photos show Maxwell on the steps of Downing Street – and power was as much a draw as celebrity.
Ghislaine Maxwell outside 10 Downing Street, date unknown. Pic: US DoJ
On 15 May 2002, the flight records show Epstein again arriving at Luton.
A flight log from the Epstein files
The next day is when he met Tony Blair, prime minister at the time. This was before Epstein’s first arrest and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing.
Read more:
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The meeting was arranged by Peter Mandelson, who lost his job as ambassador to the US because of his Epstein connections, and who features prominently in the files.
Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: US DoJ
The UK was a draw for Epstein’s wider circle too – Maxwell here is pictured touring the Churchill War Rooms with Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey. Neither are accused of wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
(L-R) Ghislaine Maxwell, Kevin Spacey and Bill Clinton, with three other men. Pic: US DoJ
And the other grim life that Epstein led, of sex trafficking, also had British links.
A page from the Epstein files
Another document released in the files, from 2019, shows witness testimony from Maxwell’s trial. In it, a victim is mentioned who is “17 years old” and who grew up “in England”. She would later be taken to Epstein’s private Caribbean island.
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