Reform UK vow to scrap the Renters’ Rights Act

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Reform UK vow to scrap the Renters’ Rights Act

Reform UK will pledge to scrap the Renters’ Rights Act if it wins the next general election, with deputy leader Richard Tice arguing the law is already reducing supply and pushing up rents.

The Act secured Royal Assent in October after it was introduced by former housing secretary Angela Rayner and builds on the earlier Renters’ Reform Bill first unveiled by the Conservative government in 2019.

Labour said the legislation would ‘level the playing field and create a fairer housing market for all’.

In a speech in Birmingham, Mr Tice described the Act as ‘well intentioned’, but said it was ‘already reducing the supply of properties to rent and therefore increasing the prices’.

Too risky for landlords

He continued: “The issue is many landlords are now concluding that’s it’s too risky to be able to essentially remove an occupier/tenant if they want, for example, to sell the property, if the tenant is not paying.

“There’s a balance of risk and reward.

“Too many landlords have said enough is enough.”

Mr Tice added: “Again, it’s well intentioned in terms of the issues around the period for notice to quit, but actually it’s just gone way beyond this.”

Plans are a ‘disgrace’

The chief executive of Generation Rent, Ben Twomey, said: “Forcing people back into insecure and unsafe homes is not a promise, it’s a threat levelled at England’s 11 million private renters.

“Our homes are the foundations of our lives, so it is disgraceful to see Reform UK pledging to roll back new and essential protections that would improve the quality of our homes and help us to stay in them for longer.”

He added: “Reform UK had nothing to say at the debates about the Renters’ Rights Bill when it was passing through Parliament.

“They also haven’t spoken to renter groups like us about their plans, which would be a gift to unscrupulous landlords who are responsible for the poor conditions renters face right now.”

RRC also disagrees

On X/Twitter, the Renters’ Reform Coalition said: “Over two-thirds of the public supports the end of Section 21 evictions.

“So, why does Reform want to repeal renters’ rights?

“Scrapping the Renters’ Rights Act would just mean more homelessness and insecurity for England’s 11 million renters. Reform should think again.”

Labour’s ‘daft’ reforms

Reform says it would introduce a ‘great repeal bill’ to reverse the rental reforms and other Labour measures it describes as being ‘daft’.

The repeal would sit within a broader economic plan focused on investment and growth.

Housing policy would be absorbed into a new Great Office of State, the Department of Business, Trade and Energy.

The proposed department would take on responsibility for business regulation and energy as well as housing.

Smarter regulation planned

Mr Tice has also set out plans for ‘smarter regulation’, lower energy bills and a British sovereign wealth fund to support manufacturing.

The Local Government Pension Scheme, under the proposals, would be converted into a fund of up to £575bn to back domestic growth.

The party says it would prioritise strategic industries, including steel, oil, gas and defence.

It will also call for ‘heavy tariffs and tight quotas’ on Chinese cars, citing concerns about Britain’s automotive sector.

Watch Richard Tice announce the repeal of the Renters’ Rights Act:

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Landlord says council has ‘ditched’ a vulnerable tenant as clean-up bill mounts

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Landlord says council has ‘ditched’ a vulnerable tenant as clean-up bill mounts

A Nottingham landlord claims the city council has ‘washed its hands’ of a vulnerable tenant it placed in his property nearly two decades ago.

As a result, he has been left facing mounting costs, enforcement action and a potential £30,000 fine.

Mick Roberts, the largest landlord of benefit tenants in the city, says the tenant was referred to him by Nottingham City Council in 2007.

The tenant, now 70, is living with cancer, uses a wheelchair and has other health problems.

Not a social worker

Mr Roberts insists he does not blame the tenant for the condition of the house and garden, which can be seen in the video below.

Instead, he argues that the council has failed to ensure the right support was in place for the tenant.

Mr Roberts told Property118: “I’m not a social worker, not a counsellor, not a council worker.

“I housed him on the council’s say so.”

Landlord told to clear garden

The property, in Bulwell, has become heavily cluttered, with lots of garden waste and damage to boundary fencing.

Mr Roberts says he and a prospective buyer have already cleared some of the rubbish, but more work is required.

He claims that, despite the tenant’s health issues, the council has ‘absolved themselves of all responsibility’.

Mr Roberts has been left to fund the clean-up and address enforcement notices.

Needs a licence

That’s because the council’s licensing officers are also pursuing him for a property licence at a cost of £890, he says.

They are warning him that failure to comply could expose him to fines of up to £30,000 under housing enforcement powers.

At the same time, local community protection officers have issued instructions requiring the gardens to be cleared and fencing repaired by a set deadline.

The garden debris and broken fence were caused by the tenant.

Landlord will fix it

Mr Roberts said: “And yes, you’ve guessed it – it’s the landlord’s fault the house is like this.

“For a tenant the council asked me to house!”

He stresses that he does not blame the tenant, explaining: “He’s 70 and needed help. He didn’t get the correct help.

“But that’s OK, the landlord will sort it.”

Nottingham City Council has been approached for comment.

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Landlord says council has ‘ditched’ a vulnerable tenant as clean-up bill mounts

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Property118

Landlord says council has ‘ditched’ a vulnerable tenant as clean-up bill mounts

A Nottingham landlord claims the city council has ‘washed its hands’ of a vulnerable tenant it placed in his property nearly two decades ago.

As a result, he has been left facing mounting costs, enforcement action and a potential £30,000 fine.

Mick Roberts, the largest landlord of benefit tenants in the city, says the tenant was referred to him by Nottingham City Council in 2007.

The tenant, now 70, is living with cancer, uses a wheelchair and has other health problems.

Not a social worker

Mr Roberts insists he does not blame the tenant for the condition of the house and garden, which can be seen in the video below.

Instead, he argues that the council has failed to ensure the right support was in place for the tenant.

Mr Roberts told Property118: “I’m not a social worker, not a counsellor, not a council worker.

“I housed him on the council’s say so.”

Landlord told to clear garden

The property, in Bulwell, has become heavily cluttered, with lots of garden waste and damage to boundary fencing.

Mr Roberts says he and a prospective buyer have already cleared some of the rubbish, but more work is required.

He claims that, despite the tenant’s health issues, the council has ‘absolved themselves of all responsibility’.

Mr Roberts has been left to fund the clean-up and address enforcement notices.

Needs a licence

That’s because the council’s licensing officers are also pursuing him for a property licence at a cost of £890, he says.

They are warning him that failure to comply could expose him to fines of up to £30,000 under housing enforcement powers.

At the same time, local community protection officers have issued instructions requiring the gardens to be cleared and fencing repaired by a set deadline.

The garden debris and broken fence were caused by the tenant.

Landlord will fix it

Mr Roberts said: “And yes, you’ve guessed it – it’s the landlord’s fault the house is like this.

“For a tenant the council asked me to house!”

He stresses that he does not blame the tenant, explaining: “He’s 70 and needed help. He didn’t get the correct help.

“But that’s OK, the landlord will sort it.”

Nottingham City Council has been approached for comment.

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Councils struggle with damp and mould targets under Awaab’s Law

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Councils struggle with damp and mould targets under Awaab’s Law

Two councils in Suffolk that manage 700 homes have failed to meet targets for addressing damp and mould, according to a BBC report.

Under Awaab’s Law, social housing landlords must investigate any significant hazards, including damp and mould, within 10 working days of becoming aware of them.

However, Mid Suffolk District Council resolved only 63% of hazards, while Babergh District Council resolved 78%.

100% resolution rate challenging

David White, the head of housing transformation and regulation at the two councils, admitted an 100% resolution rate was challenging due to issues with contractors, but the councils have undergone changes to improve their housing stock.

Mr White told the BBC: “Over the last 18 months we have implemented over 40 new contracts with repairs, assets and asset management because we had none before, and we were doing it on a piece-by-piece basis. We had none of the performance measure in the contract.”

Mandeep Bhogil, interim director of housing at the councils, told the BBC that they are now “embedding” the new contractors and “finessing” the data they can extract from them.

Fair, proportionate and effective

The news comes as Awaab’s Law is set to be extended to the private rented sector. The government has not confirmed a date, but it is expected to come into force in 2027.

It says it understands the differences between social housing and the private rented sector and will apply the law in a way that is “fair, proportionate and effective” for both landlords and tenants.

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Can the Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill deliver on its objectives?

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Can the Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill deliver on its objectives?

We now have the Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill. It is not yet in final form and there may be some changes following consultation until late April.

However, we now have some certainty that the government plans for commonhold to become the default tenure for new flats, to cap ground rents in older leases, to abolish forfeiture and to make it easier for existing blocks to convert. It is likely these key changes will remain in some form in the final bill.

As a member of ALEP, I welcome reform to the existing system. There are many flaws in the leasehold system and commonhold in its current form is not massively appealing.

However, I also want the government and wider audiences to understand the risks attached.

We have lived through the difficult parliamentary passage and partial implementation of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act (LAFRA) which was ultimately rushed.

The media coverage didn’t help, creating confusion particularly about what was in force.

Reform is necessary, but it must be workable, evidence based and meaningful consultation with the professionals who will have to run it day to day is crucial.

There are four main changes which underpin Parliament’s continued intention to address the imbalance in this feudal system and deal with the great dissatisfaction experienced by many leaseholders.

The proposed ground rent cap

The ground rent cap – £250 per year for 40 years and then a peppercorn – is designed to tackle the ground rent scandal, particularly the cases involving doubling rents, aggressive escalation clauses and situations where leaseholders were effectively trapped because their leases became unmortgageable.

From that perspective, the reform is a welcome correction and will give many leaseholders long overdue relief as well as greater confidence for lenders.

However, the cap creates a different set of issues for leaseholders who have already acquired their freehold.

Many of them paid a premium that reflected the capitalised value of the ground rent, especially where the rent exceeded £250 or was due to escalate beyond that level.

They effectively compensated the outgoing freeholder for the loss of that income stream.

If the legislation now removes or caps that income, they are left with an asset that is worth less than they paid for.

There is a further fairness concern where not all leaseholders participated in the freehold purchase.

The participating leaseholders often had to fund the non-participants’ share of the premium. Under the proposed cap, the non-participants benefit from reduced ground rent without having contributed to the original acquisition cost, while the participating leaseholders absorb the financial loss.

The value impact will vary. Where participating leaseholders have already extended their leases to 999 years at a peppercorn, the loss of ground rent income may not materially affect their own long-term position.

But for those who relied on the ground rent income to offset the enfranchisement premium – or who expected to recover that value on resale of the freehold interest – the cap will reduce the value of their asset.

Parliament did consider this impact but did not propose any sort of compensation to address this issue.

In short, the reform addresses the ground rent scandal for many leaseholders, but it does so at the expense of those who enfranchised early and paid for the very income stream the legislation now proposes to remove.

Forfeiture for long residential leases

Second, the proposal to abolish forfeiture for long residential leases is a long overdue rebalancing of rights.

Replacing forfeiture with a statutory enforcement regime that preserves effective remedies but introduces judicial oversight should finally remove the cliff edge risk that has overshadowed service charge disputes and breach allegations for decades.

The complexity of mixed use

Third, the Bill makes a serious attempt to render commonhold workable in the types of schemes we actually build.

The introduction of “sections” and separate cost heads is aimed at managing the complexity of mixed-use developments.

The concept of “permitted leases” is designed to accommodate shared ownership products and certain home finance structures.

That willingness to engage with the messy reality of modern development patterns is a welcome shift from the more idealised versions of commonhold seen in earlier legislation.

The consent threshold

Fourth, the Bill tackles conversion more directly than before.

Reducing the consent threshold from 100% to 50% is a significant change, and the draft sets out a mechanism for bringing non consenting leaseholders within a harmonised framework of rights and obligations.

If commonhold is ever to move beyond a niche tenure, conversion cannot depend on unanimity; the Bill recognises that and attempts to provide a workable pathway.

Uncertainties remain

The risks are mostly operational, and these can be summarised as three specific concerns.

The first is timing and transition.

The effective ban on new leasehold flats is tempered by consultation on exemptions and transitional arrangements.

Getting that wrong could disrupt housing delivery and lender confidence.

Developers need a tenure that is fundable, saleable and durable.

Lenders need predictable security and enforceable remedies.

Purchasers need clarity on liabilities and governance.

The second is capacity and familiarity.

Many solicitors, managing agents, valuers and lenders have never worked with commonhold.

With fewer than 20 developments registered since its introduction more than 20 years ago, there has been limited opportunity to gain practical experience.

If commonhold is to become the default, training has to be treated as infrastructure, not an optional extra.

It needs to cover structures, processes, dispute resolution and the practicalities of coordinating large groups of leaseholders through conversion.

And the third is legal challenge.

ALEP has already flagged the risk of Human Rights Act arguments around the ground rent cap and “sunset” approach.

Advisers should assume litigation risk, particularly where investment valuations and long term income streams are in play.

Conversion itself will also remain hard, even with a lower voting threshold.

Leaseholders will generally need to acquire the freehold first and then convert.

Cost, timing and complexity will still bite where there are mixed use sites, defective leases, missing landlords or fragmented interests.

This is not all negative, however.

If commonhold becomes mainstream, advising may become simpler.

Commonhold community statements should operate in a similar way to leases by setting out rights, obligations and liabilities.

As largely prescribed documents, there should be less scope for interpretation.

Many of us would accept that leases, with their legalese, are not always easy to understand.

Key considerations for landlords from a legal perspective

Over the consultation period and through pre-legislative scrutiny, I will be keeping an eye on five things on behalf of landlord clients.

• Regulations and guidance: especially the Commonhold Community Statement, local rules and enforcement mechanics
• Safeguards in the lease enforcement scheme: thresholds, remedies and the route to sale
• Treatment of non-consenting leaseholders: workable decision-making with fair protections
• The new build transition: exemptions, timing and lender and consumer response
• Professional readiness: training, lender policy, consumer education and a forum to keep implementation grounded

The Bill is ambitious, and that is appropriate given the scale of the issue.

The risk is that rushed detail creates uncertainty and the people the reforms are meant to help carry the cost.

My hope is that government uses this draft process properly, works with practitioners and produces a final Bill that is not only principled but operable.

Shabnam Ali-Khan is a partner at Russell-Cooke and a member of ALEP (Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners).

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