Plans to end Section 21 repossessions, consult on a national register of landlords and develop plans to better tackle rogue landlords have been announced as part of the levelling up white paper set to published today.
Proposals in the government’s ‘Levelling Up’ White Paper will also ensure that private rented homes will be required to meet the Decent Homes Standard.
Responding to the plans, Timothy Douglas, Propertymark, head of policy and campaigns, commented: “Everyone wants to see a crackdown on rogue landlords and safe and secure private rented homes, but additional standards are meaningless unless they are enforced. What’s key for ‘levelling up’ the private rented sector is ensuring that local authorities have the staff and resources needed to actively go out, inspect properties and prosecute.
“Abolishing Section 21 has been talked about for a while now by the UK government but what agents want to know is what will replace it to maintain confidence in the market for landlords. Propertymark believes the only workable alternative is to strengthen all grounds for possession and make them all mandatory – this is in-keeping with the spirit of the UK Government’s intentions as tenant’s won’t be evicted unless they have been provided with good reason to do so.
“We await further details but additional commitments from the UK government to build more genuinely affordable social housing is important because the long-term solution to address the lack of affordability in the private rented sector is to ensure that more social housing is built to reduce housing need.
“On home ownership, the UK government’s plans to address the imbalance of housing supply will be welcome in many parts of the country with a clear focus on providing more people with more opportunities to own their own home. However, there is no mention of the anticipated housing needs of older people and the planning system must remove known barriers to maximising delivery.”
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “Every tenant should have the right to expect properties to be safe and secure. The existing Decent Homes Standard however is not the right vehicle with which to achieve this important goal.
“At present, this standard, designed for the social rented sector, does not reflect many of the differences between it and the private rented sector. This includes the types and age of properties in each.
“We will work with the government to ensure whatever standards expected of the sector are proportionate, fit for purpose and can be properly enforced. Without this, criminal landlords will continue to undermine the reputation of the vast majority of responsible landlords doing the right thing.”
Richard Davies, head of lettings at Chestertons, said: “The quality and finish of rental homes has evolved drastically over the past years but it has predominantly been new-build properties or Build to Rent schemes that benefited from this. With strong demand for quality housing from tenants in and outside the capital, we welcome the government’s decision to prompt private landlords to upgrade their properties and meet a minimum standard; no matter when they were originally built.
“It’s worth noting that, in our experience, landlords that do invest in maintaining or refurbishing their rental properties, benefit from a higher rental income, lower void periods and find that the tenant will take better care of the property to avoid losing any of their deposit. Another hopeful side effect of the new legislations is a potential drop in rogue landlords.”