The cross party Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee says that the proposed banning of Section 21 eviction could be rife for exploitation by dodgy landlords and court system delays which are highlighted in its recently published report.

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The LUHC’’s committee’s report, Reforming The Private Rented Sector, says the White Paper recommendations for the Renters Reform Bill, may have a detrimental effect on the student private rental sector market and warns that the increase in holiday lets is a major threat to local communities’ housing.

The report also believes that if the government goes ahead with its proposed ‘sales and occupations’ grounds for eviction, as detailed in the White Paper, could be “too easily exploited by bad landlords and become a backdoor to no-fault evictions”.

The committee has put forward a series of changes to the sales and occupation grounds to help tackle what it calls “unfair eviction and insecurity of tenure.”

The report fully supports the government’s intent to introduce a regulated decent homes standard but points out there are many issues that will stop councils from being able to enforce the standard, such as council’s funding, the lack of properly qualified enforcement staff, as well as the shortage of reliable data.

The report calls for the government to introduce a much tougher regime of civil penalties in the Renters Reform Bill and to make sure councils have infrastructures and means to collect financial penalties from bad landlords.

Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities committee, says: “By its own admission, the government’s White Paper did not address the underlying cause of the affordability crisis in the private rented sector, namely the decades-long failure of successive governments to build enough homes. 

“Only a significant increase in housing, particularly affordable housing, will ultimately tackle the rocketing costs of renting for many tenants. We call on the government to recommit delivering the affordable homes the country needs, particularly the 90,000 social rent homes needed every year.

“The government should remedy the blight of unfair evictions and insecurity of tenure experienced by too many tenants today. From our inquiry, it’s not clear the government fully appreciates that a creaking and unreformed courts system in England risks undermining their own tenancy reforms, including the welcome commitment to ban ‘no fault’ evictions.

“For landlords and tenants, it’s vital the government now finds a practical way forward to enable courts to fast-track claims.”

The report welcomes the government’s intention of abolishing fixed-term tenancies but is concerned about the measure being applied to the student private rental sector market.

If the measure is applied to student lets sector it could make it considerably less attractive to landlords and by doing so could push up rents because of less properties. The report calls for the government to keep fixed-term tenancies for the entire student private lettings sector, however landlords must sign up to one of the government’s approved codes of conduct.

The committee’s report concludes that the proposed sales and occupation grounds will be taken ‘advantage of’ by bad landlords and wants the government to increase the period from the start of the tenancy for a landlord to invoke either of grounds, from six months to one year; and the period from which a landlord can market or let a property after an eviction on either grounds, to be increased from three to six months.

The report accepts that private rental housing supply is falling in holiday areas as the short holiday lettings market is on the rise.