News
MINISTY OF HOUSING,COMMUNITES&LOCAL GOVERMENT PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR APRIL NEWSLETTER
Tuesday 23rd April 2019
You will know that the English Housing Survey for 2017-18 showed that the private rented sector now accounts for 4.5 million or 19% of households, and that the demographic of private renters is changing with more older renters than before and over a third of renters having dependent children. It showed too that the private rented sector still has the highest proportion of non-decent homes at 25%. While this is clearly unacceptable, there has been progress over the past years with the figure down from 27% last year and 47% in 2006.
It is clear overall, that the Private Rented Sector continues in its strategic importance as a tenure for many people, and that the need to focus our attention on making the vision of a place called home a reality for every tenant remains core to our shared purpose.
There is a lot going on to make this happen, centrally in the Department as we develop new, and build upon existing policies; and more widely, through the valuable work carried out by important stakeholders and by local authorities. We have seen real evidence of some of this at first hand over the past weeks at our recent series of local authority enforcement workshops. These are an example of how we are working to support local authorities in their roles. I hope too that you have seen the announcement this week signalling the end of 'no fault' evictions. We have set this out in more detail below, but I would like to take the opportunity here to note this landmark policy. We are looking forward to working further with the sector to bring about this important change.
Section 21 Reform
The Government has published a response to the recent consultation on overcoming the barriers to longer tenancies which is available online.The Government intends to introduce a new, fairer deal for both landlords and tenants in the private rented sector. As part of this new deal, the Government is proposing to put an end to 'no-fault' evictions by repealing section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. Under the new proposals, a tenant could not be evicted from their home without good reason, providing tenants with more stability, and enabling them to put down roots and plan for the future.
We also plan to strengthen the Section 8 possession process, so property owners are able to regain their home should they wish to sell it or move into it. These will be in addition to the existing grounds which allow landlords to evict tenants who don't pay the rent or commit anti-social behaviour. We also plan to reform the court process for housing cases, so that landlords are able to swiftly and smoothly regain their property where they have a legitimate reason.
Removing 'no-fault' evictions is a significant step. Our announcement is the start of a longer process to introduce these reforms. We will launch a consultation on the details of a better system that will work for landlords and tenants. Ministers will also work with other types of housing providers outside of the private rented sector who use these powers and use the consultation to make sure the new system works effectively.
Publication of Consolidated Enforcement Guidance
We're delighted to announce that our renewed and refreshed guidance documents are now live. You can find the consumer (landlord and tenant) guidance here and the local authority enforcement officers' guidance here.Most landlords are responsible and would not even consider renting dangerous or substandard properties to tenants. Our consumer guidance has been designed to help both tenants and landlords understand their rights and responsibilities, so that the landlord-tenant relationship can be a professional and constructive one. It also provides advice on what to do if something goes wrong for either party.
This is the latest step in our work to support local authorities to crack down on the small minority of criminal landlords who exploit tenants for their own benefit, and to drive up standards across the private rented sector. We'd like to thank all those from the landlord, tenant and professional body groups, as well as local authority enforcement officers, who helped us draft both documents.
Homes Act & Tenant Fees Act
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act came into force on 20 March, and guidance has been published to help tenants, landlords and local authorities understand what it means for them. For tenants, this non-statutory guidance will help them to make use of their rights under the Act. For landlords and local authorities, this non-statutory guidance will ensure that they are aware of what the Act means for them. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 comes into force on 1 June and in advance of this, a number of tailored guidance documents have been published. These documents include detailed consumer guidance to helptenants and landlords and letting agents understand how the Act affects them. The new lead enforcement authority for the lettings sector has now been announced - Bristol City Council have been appointed to the role. The team will join up with the existing estate agency team (you may know them as NTSEAT) to form the National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Agency Team (NTSELAT). The new body will issue guidance and oversee the operation of lettings and estate agency legislation.
Park Homes
The technical consultation on how the "fit and proper person test" will work for site licence holders and managers of residential and mixed use sites is planned for issue over the summer. Legislation to introduce the test will follow when parliamentary time allows.