The Government says it will deliver the biggest change to renters law in a generation, with the Renters Reform Bill, which was outlined in this month’s Queen’s Speech.

It says it will improve the lives of millions of renters by driving up standards in the private and social rented sector, delivering on the Government’s mission to level up the country.

A “new deal” will be put in place for the 4.4 million households privately renting across England by extending the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for the first time.

It is designed to ensure all renters have access to secure, quality homes, levelling up opportunities for the 21 per cent of private rented who currently live in homes of an unacceptable standard.

  • Legislation will drive up quality for private renters, extending the Decent Homes Standard to the sector for the first time and giving all renters the legal right to a safe and warm home
  • It will ban Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, protecting tenants from unscrupulous landlords, while strengthening landlords’ legitimate grounds for taking back their property
  • New support for social renters, with regular rigorous inspections and stronger powers to tackle failings by social housing landlords

Levelling Up and Housing Secretary Michael Gove said: “This is all part of our plan to level up communities and improve the life chances of people from all corners of the country.”
A new Private Renters’ Ombudsman will be created to enable disputes between private renters and landlords to be settled quickly, at low cost, and without going to courts

Social renters

The Social Housing Regulation Bill will continue to deliver on the Government’s reforms in response to the Grenfell Tower fire as the fifth anniversary of the tragedy approaches.

It will create a regulatory framework that will drive up the standards of social housing accommodation and help tenants and the Regulator hold social housing landlords to account.

  • Giving the Regulator stronger powers to enforce action if they see failings by social housing landlords.
  • Placing an expectation on social landlords to place tenants’ concerns at the heart of all they do, with effective resident engagement in place, so no one has to live in sub-standard social housing.
  • Providing greater transparency for tenants on how their landlord is performing, how their homes are managed and who is responsible for compliance with health and safety requirements.

Strengthening the economic regulation of the social housing sector, increasing protections for tenants’ homes and supporting continued investment in the new supply of social housing.