In a recent announcement from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities that the highly ‘mooted’ Rental Reform White Paper will now be delayed until next year.

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It has long been stated by the Ministry that the White Paper would come out “this autumn” but now those responsible for preparing the document were told that the extended timeline  will help the government to provide a “balanced package of reforms”.

Speaking at the recent Tory party conference, Housing minister Eddie Hughes reassured attendees that his teams were in complex discussions exploring all avenues so as not to cause what he called “unintentional consequences.”

The government has faced numerous criticisms from the ‘Usual Suspects’ Generation Rent and Shelter accusing it of being unacceptably slow in its ‘intention’ of getting rid of Section 21 evictions which was included in the Tories manifesto pledges in 2019.

No surprise really that the PRS sector is relieved and the chief executive of an accreditation service has welcomed the delay and says: “We welcome the clarity on when the White Paper on reforms to the Private Rented Sector will be published.

“It makes sense to wait for the findings of the National Audit Office’s review of existing regulation and exploration of key sector organisations' aspirations for private rental sector reform for the benefit of tenants and landlords. We took part in the NAO’s review and looks forward to the report being published."

The department sent out correspondence to participants which ‘owned up’ to the delay stating:

“Building more time into our policy development will not only allow us to benefit from continued work with the sector but will also allow us to carefully consider the findings of the National Audit Office’s review of regulation of the sector which is due to report in the coming months.