'Good landlords have nothing to fear' in renter reform bill, says minister as he vows to 'drive out' rogue landlords
11 September 2024, 10:12 | Updated: 11 September 2024, 10:30
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook joins Nick Ferrari at Breakfast | Watch Again
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has refused to recognise warnings that the Renters’ Rights Bill could prompt a reduction in rental properties, vowing that 'good landlords have nothing to fear'.
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The housing and planning minister told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that the reforms will "level the playing field" for landlords and tenants.
The Renter's Rights Bill will be introduced on Wednesday and includes a ban on no-fault evictions, which allow landlords to evict tenants with two months’ notice without providing a reason.
The Conservatives had already proposed similar legislation in their Renters' Rights Bill, which did not go through Parliament before the election.
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Mr Pennycook argued that “good landlords have nothing to fear from these reforms” but that they will not be able to “arbitrarily evict any tenant with a section 21 notice, including tenants that make complaints about things like damp and mould, rather than fix those problems”.
He said: “We recognise that most landlords provide a good service to their tenants. We want to drive out disreputable landlords from the sector, but good landlords through this Bill will have robust grounds for possession when they need to take their properties back.”
Mr Pennycook also refused to recognise warnings that the changes could prompt landlords to sell their buy-to-let properties and reduce how many rental properties are available.
He said: “If a proportion of … over-geared buy-to-let landlords leave and we have more professional private rent providers come in, that will actually, I think, drive some improvements for tenants.
"We want to see, for example, an increase in the build-to-rent sector where you’ve got professional providers coming in and providing a slightly different offer.”
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It is “hard to tell” how many tenants would take landlords to tribunals under Government reforms to renters’ rights, the housing and planning minister said.
Matthew Pennycook told LBC: “We just don’t know on some of these reforms what the implications will be in terms of, for example, how many tenants will challenge an unjustified, unreasonable within-tenancy rent increase at tribunal.
“We’d expect it to be a bit more. We don’t think there’ll be huge numbers, but there are potential challenges for the courts and tribunal service to have to deal with.
“We’re working very closely with colleagues in the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the court system is ready at the point that the new system comes into effect.
"Tenants can already challenge landlords at tribunals over a rent increase they feel is unreasonable but under the reforms tribunals will not be able to award a rent increase that is higher than the landlord proposed, Mr Pennycook said.
“We want a proportion of tenants to go to the tribunal because it will have a sort of public interest role in benchmarking what is the reasonable rent increase in any area but … we don’t want a system where the tribunals are swamped."
The Bill also includes new mediation, a new ombudsman for the private renting sector and a new landlord database, he said.
