After a tumultuous start to life in government, Labour now look set to implement one of their key election promises. The Renter’s Rights Bill is set to be pushed forward to the Commons within the next week – and the legislation seeks to ban no-fault evictions.
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What is the Renter’s Rights Bill?
Essentially, these new laws will give greater protections to renters across the country. Among other things promised by the white paper, landlords and agents will also be compelled to address serious property issues within a fixed timeframe.
As reported by The Guardian, landlords will be asked to give more notice before they evict any residents, and PREVENTED from creating bidding wars between prospective tenants by offering the same letting price to all prospective applicants.
No-fault evictions set to be banned by new Labour legislation
The outlawing of ‘Section 21’ evictions stands as the headline act, however, and landlords will need to have just cause before asking tenants to vacate a property. This would come into effect ‘as soon as the bill becomes official law’ in the UK.
Angela Rayner said that the issue would be on her desk ‘on the first day she took office’. Now, two months after Labour won a significant majority in Parliament, the Deputy Prime Minister has come good on her promise to tackle the dire state of Britain’s rental markets.
End of no-fault evictions approved by housing officials
The swift response also serves to show the Tories up. Theresa May had initially planned to end no-fault evictions, before she was consumed by all things Brexit. Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak also failed to take action during their short premierships.
Tom Copley is the Deputy Mayor of London For Housing. He has welcomed the news with open arms, and slammed the previous government for ‘failing to deliver’ and ‘being controlled by backbenchers’.
“The Tories promised to end no-fault evictions in 2019, and failed to deliver in 5 years, because despite having an 80 seat majority they were in hoc to their backbenchers. Great to hear Labour will get this done quickly, with legislation coming next week.” | Tom Copley