The Renters (Reform) Bill will deliver on the government’s commitment to “bring in a better deal for renters”, including abolishing ‘no fault’ evictions and reforming landlord possession grounds. It will legislate for reforms set out in the private rented sector white paper published in June 2022.

Background

A healthy private rented sector is a vital part of our housing market – providing much-needed flexibility and in many cases serving as a steppingstone towards home ownership. The overall number of privately rented properties has doubled since 2004 – peaking in 2016 and remaining roughly stable since. For the most part, the sector works well for both landlords and tenants. However, some renters face a precarious lack of security as a result of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions. Short notice moves worsen children’s educational outcomes, make it challenging to hold down stable employment, and prevent families putting down roots and investing in their local area.

Nearly a quarter of private rented homes do not meet basic decency standards. The tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak shone a light on the unacceptable state of this damp, cold and dangerous housing – but these problems are not limited to the social rented sector. The government intends to tackle these issues in the private rented sector by legislating to apply a Decent Homes Standard. These dilapidated homes are costing the NHS an estimated £340 million per annum and are holding back local areas, making them less attractive places to live and work.

Responsible landlords face challenges too – including when evicting tenants who wilfully do not pay rent or exhibit anti-social behaviour. They also suffer by being undercut by a minority of criminal landlords. Reforms aim to celebrate the overwhelming majority of landlords who do a good job and give them peace of mind that they can repossess their property when a tenant is behaving badly, or their circumstances change.

Overview of Bill measures

The Renters (Reform) Bill will improve the system for both the 11 million private renters and 2.3 million landlords in England. Our reforms have been developed in consultation with landlord and tenant groups over the past 5 years. The Renters (Reform) Bill will:

• Abolish section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions and move to a simpler tenancy structure where all assured tenancies are periodic – providing more security for tenants and empowering them to challenge poor practice and unfair rent increases without fear of eviction;
• Introduce more comprehensive possession grounds so landlords can still recover their property (including where they wish to sell their property or move in close family) and to make it easier to repossess properties where tenants are at fault, for example in cases of anti-social behaviour and repeat rent arrears;
• Provide stronger protections against backdoor eviction by ensuring tenants are able to appeal excessively above-market rents which are purely designed to force them out. As now, landlords will still be able to increase rents to market price for their properties and an independent tribunal will make a judgement on this, if needed. To avoid fettering the freedom of the judiciary, the tribunal will continue to be able to determine the actual market rent of a property;
• Introduce a new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman which will provide fair, impartial, and binding resolution to many issues and prove quicker, cheaper, and less adversarial than the court system;
• Create a Privately Rented Property Portal to help landlords understand their legal obligations and demonstrate compliance (giving good landlords confidence in their position), alongside providing better information to tenants to make informed decisions when entering into a tenancy agreement. It will also support local councils – helping them target enforcement activity where it is needed most; and
• Give tenants the right to request a pet in the property, which the landlord must consider and cannot unreasonably refuse. To support this, landlords will be able to require pet insurance to cover any damage to their property.

For more information on the measures in the Bill, please visit:

• Tenancy reform
• Private Rented Sector Ombudsman
• Privately Rented Property Portal
• Renting with pets

Further improvements to the private rented sector

Alongside the Renters (Reform) Bill, we are working in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service, to ensure that, in the small proportion of tenancies where court action is required, court users can use a modern, digital service. This remains a priority for the government. Following the recommendation of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee, we will align the abolition of section 21 and new possession grounds with court improvements. This includes end-to-end digitisation of the process and our work with the courts to explore the prioritisation of certain cases, including anti-social behaviour.

The private rented sector white paper also committed to further reforms to support both landlords and tenants. We remain fully committed to implementing these reforms and will bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity to:

• Apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector to give renters safer, better value homes and remove the blight of poor-quality homes in local communities. This will help deliver the government’s Levelling Up mission to halve the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030. We launched a consultation in September 2022 to ensure the Decent Homes Standard is applied and enforced appropriately and fairly in the private rented sector. We will respond to this and set out the next steps in due course;
• Make it illegal for landlords and agents to have blanket bans on renting to tenants in receipt of benefits or with children – ensuring no family is unjustly discriminated against when looking for a place to live; and
• Strengthen local councils’ enforcement powers and introduce a new requirement for councils to report on enforcement activity – to help target criminal landlords.