Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb and Lord Howard of Rising

Tuesday 1st July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 30 in my name. I take the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf of Dulwich, that it is good to have something easy to read. I would say that this amendment is very easy to read: it would amend the Housing Act 1988 so that, when determining rents, tribunals must disregard any improvements funded by government grants for a two-year period.

The amendment, which I feel strongly about, is designed to help renters and the Government. It aims to improve upon a good policy that creates warmer homes and cheaper bills. The climate benefits from the warmer home grant, as do landlords, so why not guarantee that tenants get cheaper bills without a rent rise for a couple of years?

I met the Minister last week. She is very generous with her time, and I was grateful for her comments, but I still do not see the problem with passing the amendment. There are complexities, and the tribunals would have to sort out any details if the property owner added some of their own money along with the taxpayer money, but tribunals make far more difficult calculations every week. I have also heard privately from several people just how difficult it is with tribunals, but that is the sort of thing that must be fixed. They really cannot be allowed to wallow and not be the tribunals that they need to be.

The important thing for me in this amendment is that taxpayer-funded improvements are not used as an excuse to raise rents, and we need the force of law backing that up. Although the guidance is slightly more explicit, it will get ignored and that will discredit a good policy. Generation Rent recently did a poll of renters, asking them about their support for the Government’s policies in this area. There was a net support increase from plus 14% to plus 55% when renters were presented with a scenario where the Government would protect them from rent increases. I do not want to suggest that the Government should be run by opinion polls, but it is wonderful when you can do something that is right, does not cost any extra money and leads to a 41% jump in the popularity of that policy—and also, hopefully, the popularity of the Government.

I had hoped the Government would put this forward as their own idea in some form or another. I have been told privately that it is not nuanced enough, and that is possibly a fault of my nature, but I think it is a good amendment and hope that the Government will give it due attention.

[Lord Howard of Rising (Con)]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 31 to 33 in my name. I declare an interest as a landlord of rented properties.

When I pointed out in Committee that the Bill as drafted would create a conservative 1 million applicants to the rent tribunals, the Minister commented that that was

“unlikely, to say the least”.—[Official Report, 28/4/25; col. 1045.]

In a recent letter from her, recognition was given that there is an inherent uncertainty about the volume of rent challenges. The proposed new delegated power to backdate rent increases acknowledges the potential difficulties. Welcome as that proposal is, it does not start to address the fundamental problem. At best, it will provide some temporary window dressing. The Government might recognise that the system may be overwhelmed, as the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf, pointed out very cogently, but promoting appeals to the rent tribunal in the first place is the crux of the problem when the Bill still provides that the tribunal can only confirm or reduce the rent, not raise it. That creates a no-lose situation for tenants.

Amendment 31 addresses the most fundamental of the structural flaws. It would remove this restriction that the tribunal may only reduce or uphold a proposed rent, not increase it. If a tribunal can only confirm or lower a rent and never raise it, that is a one-way ratchet. As my noble friend Lord Jamieson pointed out, if things can only get better, what possible reason is there not to try it on? There will be no loss, and until and if the Secretary of State regulates to backdate rent increases—and how speedy that will be with two Government departments having to consult over it is noble Lords’ own guess—there will be a decent delay in any increase being implemented. It becomes a virtual necessity for a tenant to challenge.

Amendment 32 would ensure that in the event the tribunal determines that the rent initially agreed was too high, landlords are not retrospectively liable for backdated repayments to tenants of an agreed rent. This is simply a matter of fairness and legal certainty: if a tenant has freely agreed a rent at the outset of a tenancy, it should not be open to the tribunal to rewrite an agreement and impose retrospective liability on the landlord. It would set a worrying precedent.