Labour pledges to put bad landlords out of business with new charter of renters’ rights and ‘property MOT’
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Today (Monday) Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, and John
Healey, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, will set out plans to
put power in the hands of tenants with a new ‘charter of renters’
rights’. To deal with the problem of squalid private renting
housing, Labour will announce a new national ‘property MOT’. This
would introduce a legal requirement for landlords to complete an
independent annual inspection to ensure homes are up to
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Today (Monday) Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, and John Healey, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, will set out plans to put power in the hands of tenants with a new ‘charter of renters’ rights’.
To deal with the problem of squalid private renting housing, Labour will announce a new national ‘property MOT’. This would introduce a legal requirement for landlords to complete an independent annual inspection to ensure homes are up to scratch, with tough fines and forced repayment of rent to tenants if landlords let out sub-standard properties or flout the rules.
New research by Labour has revealed that tenants collectively pay over £10bn a year in rent to landlords letting out sub-standard homes. Nationally, one in four private rented homes are classed as ‘non-decent’, meaning they are damp, cold, in disrepair or unsafe to live in.
Labour’s private renters’ charter will be based on three key rights:
· The right to an affordable rented home: with rents capped at inflation nationally, powers for further controls for areas facing run-away rents and local housing allowance increased to cover the cost of renting; · The right to a secure rented home: with new open-ended tenancies, protecting tenants from unfair eviction; · The right to a decent rented home: with new minimum standards, backed by a new annual property MOT and fresh local enforcement powers.
Since 2010, the private rented sector has grown by over 1 million households. One in four families with children now rent privately and 1.7 million private renters pay more than a third of their income in rents. However, the Conservatives have refused to take on vested interests in the property industry and make the market fairer for tenants: refusing to introduce rent controls, failing to legislate for greater security and cutting council capacity to go after rogue landlords.
Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:
“Labour will be on the side of tenants and take on dodgy landlords who have been given free rein for too long.
“Real change means taking on those who exploit the housing crisis to charge eye-watering rents for substandard accommodation.
“Labour will put power in the hands of tenants with our new charter of renters’ rights, a cap on private rents and funding for renters unions to support tenants to organise and defend their right to safe and secure housing.”
John Healey, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, said:
“The power imbalance in the private rental market is at the heart of our housing crisis, with rents eating up too much of people’s pay, tenants afraid of eviction if they report problems, and families with children forced to uproot their lives at short notice.
“Many landlords provide decent homes that tenants are happy with, but the Conservatives have gifted rogue landlords the freedom to flourish. Labour will put bad landlords out of business.
“Labour will legislate in year one for a new charter of renters’ rights, with open-ended tenancies, new minimum standards and rent controls to make renting more affordable. We will make private renting a better option for all.”
End
Notes to Editors
· Labour will introduce legislation covering the private rented sector in the first Queen’s Speech of a new Labour Government, and pass legislation within a year to enshrine the new charter of renters’ rights. These would be enforced by national law, fresh local enforcement powers for councils and Government funding for renters unions to allow tenants to organise and defend their rights. · Labour analysis of English Housing Survey data shows that there are 1.175m ‘non-decent’ private rented homes, and that tenants in these homes pay an average of £759 a month. In aggregate, this means tenants pay £10.7bn a year to rent sub-standard homes. The decent homes standard was set out by Labour in Government: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7812/138355.pdf
· The three pillars of Labour’s new charter of renters’ rights are: the right to an affordable rented home, the right to a secure rented home, and the right to a decent rented home.
The right to an affordable rented home · Labour will legislate for a new national inflation cap on rent rises to stop excessive rent hikes and give tenants the security that they won’t be forced out by rising rents. Local areas facing high rents will have the opportunity to make the case for further rent controls to improve rental affordability. In London, Sadiq Khan has already set out an outline of plans to reduce rents in the capital: https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-demands-powers-to-bring-rents-down.
· Rent controls are widespread in many countries across the world and are popular in the UK too, with 60% of people backing them according to a recent report: https://fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Fabians-Beyond-Affordability-Report-WEB.pdf.
· After years of damaging Conservative cuts, recent research found that in a third of areas across Britain, fewer than ten per cent of homes are affordable to families needing housing benefit, including those in work:
· Labour would raise housing benefit for private tenants - local housing allowance - to cover the cheapest 30% of properties in local housing markets, and maintain it at that level. Local housing allowance is available to tenants in and out of work: https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Real-Change-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf.
The right to a secure rented home · At present, renters who’ve paid their rent and kept their tenancy terms can be evicted with no reason and for no fault. Labour will legislate for new open-ended or indefinite tenancies on a model similar to that found in Germany. Tenants themselves will still be able to choose to leave the property after a period of notice, but will only be able to be evicted on tightly defined grounds, for example if they don’t pay the rent or commit criminal behaviour in the property, or the landlord is going to move back into the property themselves. In England, according to a survey of landlords conducted by the Government, landlords or their agents make the decision to end almost one in five tenancies (18%):
The right to a decent rented home · Labour will introduce a new ‘property MOT’, which would require landlords to complete an annual inspection designed to ensure their properties are up to scratch. Possession of valid ‘MOT’ would be a statutory requirement for landlords to let out a home, with failure meaning new fines of up to £100,000 for an individual offence, and the potential for the landlord to be liable to repay rent to the tenant.
· This would combine existing standards such as on gas and electrical safety with a new national minimum standard to ensure homes are safe and free from serious disrepair, damp or discomfort. The ‘MOT’ would have to be independently inspected and would be overseen by local councils, as enforcement authorities. Such a scheme has been previously recommended by independent academics at the University of York: http://www.nationwidefoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Private-Rented-Sector-report.pdf. |