What is Labour’s Renters Rights Bill – and will it end no-fault evictions?

Published

3 weeks ago

September 11, 2024

admin

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.

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’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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Published

2 hours ago

September 29, 2024

admin

Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Robert Jenrick has defended being handed a £75,000 donation from a company which had received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), despite criticising Labour over the freebies row.

Questions have been raised over the ultimate source of the funds from The Spott Fitness, which gave Mr Jenrick three separate £25,000 donations in July.

As first reported by Tortoise Media, the company received a loan from a firm based in the BVI.

The Tory leadership contender told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that The Spott Fitness “as I understand it… is a fitness company that operates in the UK”, and the donation was “perfectly legal and valid”.

Politics Live: Tory leadership candidates faced questions on Sky News

Mr Jenrick spoke to Sky News alongside the three other rivals to replace Rishi Sunak, as the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham kicks off.

During the interviews, Kemi Badenoch said she is a fighter and if someone takes a swing at her “I will swing back”.

Meanwhile, Tom Tugendhat defended his “posh boy public school background”, saying his military service has given him leadership skills, while former home secretary James Cleverly refused to name any of the previous four Tory prime ministers as being to blame for the party’s general election defeat, saying the public “don’t like infighting”.

Jenrick says donations ‘valid’

Asked about the donations from The Spott Fitness, which have been declared on his MPs’ register of interests, Mr Jenrick said: “As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK.

“It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way that one does with donations.”

Pressed for details on who owns the company and who works for it, the former immigration minister said this would be set out “on Companies House in the normal way” and he has “obviously met people who are involved in the company”.

“What people are criticising Labour for is actually rather different,” he added.

“Labour are being criticised for their rank hypocrisy that they spent years complaining about other political parties and then they’ve chosen to take off donors and cronies and to give passes to Number 10 in response.”

The Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week was overshadowed by a donation and freebies row, after it emerged Sir Keir Starmer accepted over £100,000 in gifts since 2019.

Questions have been raised in particular over the large amount given by Labour peer and TV executive Lord Alli, who had a pass to Number 10 for a short time in order to attend meetings, the government said.

The Conservatives are now gathering in Birmingham since their worst defeat at the ballot box in history at the July general election.

Jenrick backs ‘cast iron cap’ on migration

Mr Jenrick, currently the frontrunner to replace Mr Sunak, said his party made “serious mistakes” and failed to deliver.

He is pitching himself as a “change” candidate, telling Trevor Phillips he would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) in order to get the failed £700m Rwanda asylum scheme up and running, and introduce a cap on migration.

He said this would be different from previous commitments to introduce a limit as the cap would be “legally binding… cast in iron”, with the number set “in the tens of thousands or lower”.

Badenoch: ‘If you swing at me I will swing back’

Mr Jenrick faces competition on the right from Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister.

Speaking to Phillips, she defended an Op-ed in The Daily Telegraph in which she claimed there was a rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.

She said she was not referring to all Muslim immigrants “but there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two”.

The combative shadow housing secretary also insisted she does not go looking for fights when asked about her rows with the likes of Doctor Who star David Tennant, but that she will stand up for herself.

The North West Essex MP said: “I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me I will swing back but I don’t look for fights.”

She added: “I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest.”

‘Public don’t like bickering’

All four leadership contenders will make their case at the party conference this week, before another round of voting by MPs will reduce them to the final two, which the party membership will then vote on.

Mr Cleverly, who got the least votes of those remaining in the previous round, said his various cabinet roles in the past few years meant he has spent “more time promoting other people’s ideas” rather than his own – but that shows he is a “team player”.

He declined to name a prime minister who he blamed most for the party’s 2024 defeat but added: “I’ll tell you what the public told me they didn’t like – they didn’t like the constant infighting, they didn’t like the bickering.”

Mr Tugendhat asked the public to judge him on his own record, rather than his public schooling.

“I think that decisions I have made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you are looking at,” he said.

“I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

UK

Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

Published

2 hours ago

September 29, 2024

admin

Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

An eight-year-old boy has died after sustaining “serious” injuries to his head and face after being shot at a farm.

Cumbria Police said they are investigating the incident, and said they were called to the farm – in the Warcop area – at around 2.50pm on Saturday.

They said they received “a report that a child had been seriously injured by a firearm at the property” and that police and North West Ambulance Service attended.

“The firearm was secured at the scene by police and an eight-year-old boy was taken to hospital by air ambulance having suffered serious and life-threatening injuries to his head and face,” they said.

“Sadly, the boy has died overnight.”

Cumbria Police added officers arrested a man in his 60s at the scene on suspicion of assault GBH.

“He remains in police custody but is now under arrest on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter,” they said in a statement.

UK

Rosie Duffield ‘never thought’ she would quit Labour – but says Sir Keir Starmer ‘has problem with women’

Published

2 hours ago

September 29, 2024

admin

Rosie Duffield 'never thought' she would quit Labour - but says Sir Keir Starmer 'has problem with women'

Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said she never thought she would leave the party “in a million years” and suggested the prime minister has a “problem with women” after her resignation.

The Canterbury MP, who submitted a scathing resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday, told the BBC she is “desperately sorry” to those in her constituency who voted for Labour.

“It’s not at all where I wanted to be. I never thought in a million years I would leave this party,” she told the broadcaster late last night.

“I’m trying not to get upset… it’s in your soul and your heart, particularly someone like me.

“I’m from a very different background to Keir Starmer. I was a single mum who needed the Labour Party.

“It’s just so profoundly disappointing as a Labour voter and activist and a former recipient of tax credits in a low-paid job to see this is what we’ve become.”

Her resignation letter to the prime minister said she was “so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party”.

In the interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Duffield was asked if she thought Sir Keir “has a problem with women”.

She replied: “I’m afraid I do. I’ve experienced it myself.”

The now-independent MP said she and other female Labour backbenchers refer to “the young men who surround” Sir Keir as “the lads”.

“It’s very clear that the lads are in charge,” she added.

“They’ve now got their Downing Street passes and they’re the same ones briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs.”

Her resignation letter specifically criticised Sir Keir’s treatment of Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott as “deeply shameful” after her long-term suspension.

Reacting to Ms Duffield’s resignation on Sky News, Labour minister Pat McFadden said he “regrets” her decision, but added: “It’s probably not a secret that she’s been unhappy for some time.”

On questions of “sleaze” that relate to Sky News revelations of the prime minister receiving more freebies than any other MP, he said he “wouldn’t characterise it in the way that Rosie has” and that there was “no public money involved”.

He also said he is “not ashamed of the party” and that “government is always tough” in light of Labour’s decision to cut winter fuel payments for thousands of pensioners.

Starmer ‘hasn’t actually explained’

Ms Duffield told Kuenssberg Labour’s three months in power has been “mass hypocrisy” she “can’t be part of”.

“It’s greed,” she said. “Why else would someone on so much more money than most people get free gifts? He can absolutely afford his own clothes – we all can.”

She said Sir Keir “hasn’t answered” or “actually explained” the situation.

In response to the revelations on his donations, he said: “Wherever there are gifts from anyone, I’m going to comply with the rules.

“It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election. I reinforced it after the election. And that’s why shortly after the election, my team reached out for advice on what declarations should be made so it’s in accordance with the rules.

“They then sought out for further advice more recently, as a result of which they’ve made the relevant declarations.”