Jan

BREAKING: Renting reforms to be in this week’s ‘Levelling Up’ laws announcement

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Plans to force private landlords to join a national register and join a redress scheme have been rolled up into the government’s new ‘levelling up’ legislation to be announced on Wednesday which will include an aim to halve the number of poorly-rented homes by 2030.

Housing secretary Michael Gove (pictured) is set to announce the legislation this week that will include plans to see rogue landlords ejected from the database, according to a report in The Times.

The new law would also task landlords with bringing their properties up to a national standard, with about 800,000 forced to refit homes.

All private renters will also be given a right to redress for complaints. The English Housing Survey in 2019 estimated that 1.1 million properties in the sector did not meet the ‘decent homes standard’ and The Times reports that a source in the levelling-up department said 34% of homes in Yorkshire and Humber did not meet the standard compared to 17% in the South East.

Big changes

Gove is reportedly looking to bring the PRS in line with the social housing sector which could also mean introducing new measures on energy efficiency as well as a minimum standard of fixtures and fittings for furnished accommodation. Another shake-up for the PRS is due later this year in the upcoming Renters Reform White Paper.

The wider levelling-up policy to be announced on Wednesday includes plans to transform derelict sites in towns and city centres by creating new homes and jobs across England.

Wolverhampton and Sheffield will be the first of 20 places to get government support, as part of its £1.5 billion Brownfield Fund, in an initiative spearheaded by Homes England.

Meanwhile, its £1.5bn Levelling Up Home Building Fund will provide loans to small and medium-sized builders and developers to deliver 42,000 homes, and another £120 million worth of funding will be given to seven mayoral combined authorities to transform derelict brownfield sites and build thousands of new homes

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