28th
Mar 2023
Michael Gove the much loved Housing Secretary, has just promised a reporter that the long threatened Rental Reform Bill will be introduced into the House of commons in two months’ time.
Yesterday Monday 27th March, Gove told Laura Kuennsberg: “We’re bringing forward reforms a little later this year - in a couple of months’ time actually - to see how the private rental sector can be better regulated.
“We’re not talking about rent controls or rent caps but we are talking about protections for tenants.”
The Housing Secretary then broached the much contentious subject on Section 21 powers being abolished.
He told Kuennsberg: “At the moment there’s a situation where tenants can be evicted without any fault on their part and some - a tiny minority - of unscrupulous landlords are using the threat of eviction to jack up rents and to victimise tenants.
“So it’s important to recognise … that a healthy private rental sector is absolutely vital to knowing we have the right people with the right homes at the right time.
“So we need to always protect tenants from unscrupulous landlords even as we also give landlords the right to get rid of anti-social tenants.”
Last year the White Paper ‘A Fairer Private Rented Sector’ set out a series of proposals , these included giving assistance to tenants challenging what they deem as ‘excessive rent’ hikes through the First Tier Tribunal and scrapping the use of rent review clauses.
Other proposals included the introduction of a mandatory Ombudsman scheme which all private landlords will have to sign up to and the Decent Homes Standard for privately rented homes.
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