The new Labour Government has pledged to review the private rented sector (PRS), which plays a key role in meeting housing needs, to support the growing numbers of tenants and families living in privately rented homes. The Government has identified the barriers currently affecting the PRS and has proposed how to address them.   

Abolishment of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.

Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 gives landlords the right to recover possession of their rental property by serving a minimum of two months’ notice in writing to the tenant that they wish to bring the tenancy to an end. Section 21 notices are commonly referred to as ‘no fault’ evictions as there is no requirement for the landlord to give the tenant a reason as to why they wish them to vacate. Labour plans to end ‘no fault’ evictions, requiring landlords to give further grounds for repossession, including whether they want to sell their property, move into it themselves or have a close family member move in. 

Improving housing standards

The Government are proposing to improve the standards of homes by extending Awaab’s Law to cover the PRS. Awaab’s Law was introduced in the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023, which is yet to be enacted. It will impose requirements on social housing providers to investigate and fix reported health hazards within specified timeframes, the details of which will be set out in secondary legislation. Whilst Awaab’s Law was intended to apply to social housing landlords only, Labour have expressed their intention to extend the requirements to the PRS, requiring all landlords to provide an improved standard of privately rented homes. 

Improving energy efficiency standards by 2023

There is a proposal to improve the energy efficiency ratings of all privately rented homes by 2023. However, their manifesto does not state which rating(s) they intend to aim for. They have, however, pledged to invest an extra £6.6 billion to improving energy efficiency over the next parliament. This investment will upgrade five million homes to cut bills for families, addressing the energy crisis. 

National Landlords Register

The Government propose introducing a National Landlords Register, stating that it will be ‘essential’ to enforce standards within PRS. Private landlords will legally require landlords to register themselves on the register and provide details of their properties, rents and evidence compliance with the management of the property on an annual basis.

Regulating the lettings market 

At present, the lettings market is unregulated and letting agents do not need professional qualifications to set up in business. There are no requirements to provide safeguards for tenants (or landlords) or for them to conduct themselves professionally. There are often cases of agents encouraging landlords to change tenants regularly, so that they can earn extra fees, creating an unstable private rental market There have also been cases of agents (94% of surveyed letting agents imposed these additional fees) imposing unfair and variable charges on tenants and landlords such as: 

• charges for checking references ranging from £10 to £275;
• charges for renewing a tenancy ranging from £12 to £220; and
• in extreme cases, additional charges amounted to over £600.

Labour’s concern with the above differences in cost is the substantial disparity in fees charged for the same services. When in reality, the services offered and the quality of those services, isn’t vastly different, if at all.

Labour plans to:

• work with the letting industry to ensure greater transparency of information relating to rental fees and charges, aiming to make these fees and charges easily understandable for all and comparable across all agents;
• assess the services and activities that can be charged for, aiming to keep charges in proportion with the service offered; and
• introduce a code of conduct to regulate letting agents more thoroughly.

For more information on Labour's plans for the PRS, please contact me.