News
Landlords slam government over Section 21 ban confusion
Wednesday 28th February 2024
David Callaghan
Ben Beadle of the NRLA says ministers must discuss openly reports they are planning to weaken proposals to scrap 'no fault' evictions.
Landlords have demanded the Government comes clean about its Section 21 'no fault evictions' proposals.
The BBC reports yet more changes to the planned abolition of Section 21 are being debated by Tory ministers and MPs.
Discussion in a WhatsApp group of Conservative MPs, who are also landlords, is about watered down reform, the BBC says.
Only this month, Housing Secretary Michael Gove said S21 would be scrapped before the General Election.
But now it appears the Government is preparing to appease some of its backbench MPs by coming up with a 'halfway house' plan.
The Government had earlier announced that S21 would not be abolished under the Renters (Reform) Bill until the courts were better able to cope with extra cases.
Ben Beadle, CEO of the NRLA (National Residential Landlords Association), says: "We have long accepted that the Government has a mandate to end the use of fixed term tenancies and no-fault repossessions.
"If the Government is considering amendments that would provide for assurances to landlords with a six-month minimum term and ensure confidence for all in the court process, then that balance would be struck.
He calls for the amendments to be published in full "so that all parties can judge for themselves what is on the table and move on with debating the Bill in public".
"The lack of progress and uncertainty about the future is destabilising and damaging for those living and working in the private-rented sector," he says.
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