Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lord Hacking and Baroness Thornhill

Monday 21st July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, we on these Benches have been clear throughout the Bill that we support it very much: its main provisions, including the abolition of no-fault evictions and fixed-term tenancies, and its clear emphasis on tenants’ rights and much more transparency. There is no doubt that it is a radical Bill that will make significant changes to the private rented sector. It has also been said, and I wish to repeat it, that good landlords have nothing to fear from these reforms, and we on these Benches sincerely hope that that will be proved to be the case.

It is usual to say that this process is about improving the Bill through reasoned debate and using the expertise of the House. In truth, to me it felt more like a conflict—a battle of tenants versus landlords—with the bold reforms of the Government pitted against the fears and genuine concerns of the landlords, articulated sincerely and robustly by the Opposition Front Bench and others around the House.

There were also cross-House issues where only time will tell, such as the capacity of the courts. Another is the impact on all aspects of the housing market, including student landlords and the supply of homes to rent, about which let us say there were polarised views. We share the concerns expressed by the noble Baroness, but we also hope that the recent figures will steady and that, after inevitable initial upheaval, the market will settle down. We look forward to more build-to-rent and more social housing, because both are needed.

We hope that the Minister’s assurances on the military homes standard will also come to pass, as our amendment on that issue was won convincingly.

Lastly, I have some very genuine thanks. I thank everyone who took part in the many debates on amendments, which were based on honest beliefs and genuine experience, but particularly the Minister for her time, which was generously given, and for her patience—tested perhaps just a little by the determined double act of the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson. I admired their persistence, but the Minister showed that she was not willing to be moved on the Government’s core planks of the Bill, and her steeliness in the onslaught, however politely delivered, was commendable.

We cannot forget the valuable contributions of several noble Cross-Benchers. The noble Lords, Lord Cromwell, Lord Best and Lord Carrington, formed a new trio. There was also much legal wrangling. My learning curve was greatly assisted by several noble Lords who are lawyers, especially the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, even if I did not always agree with them.

For its advocacy on behalf of tenants and for shining a light on the reality of many renters, the Renters’ Reform Coalition deserves a big thank you. Generation Rent deserves a special mention—as does the National Residential Landlords Association. For me, it was challenging to read its excellent briefings and pit its persuasive arguments against my own.

It is also appropriate to thank all the officers of the House, who have no doubt worked tirelessly to get everything done on time and correctly delivered. This was my first Bill lead, and I am grateful to have had a small but dedicated team behind me, especially my noble friends Lady Grender and Lord Shipley. Where would any of us be without our able and professional staff—in this case, Adam Bull from our Whips’ Office? It has been a worthy task to contribute to the much-needed reform of the private rented sector.

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

My Lords, traditionally, Third Reading is an occasion to give thanks and congratulations to all those involved in the Bill, whether inside this Chamber or outside. My noble friend the Minister has led us well, as the noble Baronesses, Lady Scott and Lady Thornhill, who is leader of the Liberals on this, have kindly done. At this stage, our Companion makes it plain that the debates of previous stages of the Bill should not be reopened and speeches should be brief. I hope that my noble friend Lord Leong is noting that I am saying this. I intend to abide by these requirements.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lord Hacking and Baroness Thornhill

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

My Lords, I am very pleased to support the noble Lord, Lord Carrington. There is nothing political about the stand that he is, and I am now, taking; it is a purely practical amendment. Indeed, in Committee, I tabled a great number of amendments to do with the start date of the provisions in the Bill. They were also not in any way political; they were purely administrative or practical.

As your Lordships know, in the Bill there are absolutely fundamental changes to the law of landlord and tenant. The short-term tenancy has gone, and it is being replaced by a periodic tenancy. There are a number of other features which we have gone through in detail, both in Committee and on Report, which are new and represent some massive change. The consequence of that is that everybody involved in the lettings of property —estate agents and the landlords—needs time to draw up entirely new tenancy agreements.

As it happens, I personally write all my tenancy agreements with each of my tenants, and I have to get down to this task of completely rewriting these tenancy agreements. Of course, I have the advantage of having participated in the Bill at Second Reading, in Committee and now on Report. I do not need the full three months for either new or existing tenancies, but I am sympathetic to others who are going to need more time. I ask my noble friend the Minister—not for any political reasons, but for purely practical reasons—would she consider giving more time, because there is a lot of work to be done? I think I can do it within the requisite time, but others may find it very difficult.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

To the noble Lords, Lord Carrington and Lord Hacking, I have to say that we do not want to do anything that would delay the Bill. We want its key statutes to be on the books as soon as possible. Being blunt, the key players who are talking about to buy-to-let mortgages have known that this is coming for a long time. They really should have been on it for months. If they have not, I am not quite sure what planet they have been on.

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

Would the noble Baroness kindly help me when I have to write all these tenancy agreements? It takes time.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lord Hacking and Baroness Thornhill

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

My Lords, we now move on to Clause 65. I have tabled a number of amendments in this group: Amendments 207, 210, 214, 215 and 216. All of them are directed at tidying up the terms of the Bill, but they are also rather complicated, so I must ask for the patience of the Committee as I go through them one by one, so that I get the argument right relating to each of them.

Amendment 207 takes us straight to Chapter 2 on page 99 of the Bill and landlord redress schemes. Clause 65(1) says that the Secretary of State

“may make regulations requiring a residential landlord to be a member of a landlord redress scheme”.

The difference of opinion that I have in moving this amendment is that that should not be in terms of “may” but “must”, because it is an essential feature of landlord redress schemes that all residential landlords join in.

Amendment 210 goes further into this section of the Bill. The requirement that I seek here is that there should be only one landlord redress scheme. I think that my noble friend the Minister is sympathetic to that. I would like it to be rather stronger and make it an obligation to have only one redress scheme.

We then move to Amendments 214, 215 and 216. Amendment 214 gives sympathy to those who are digitally inept, which certainly includes me. In that amendment, I seek a requirement to enable those who are unfamiliar with computers and other electronic devices to be able to enter the redress scheme and not be digitally excluded.

Amendment 215 is the most complicated of all my amendments. It would make it a condition of approval of a designated redress scheme that the Secretary of State should apply the test of what is considered appropriate and proportionate in support of tenants experiencing house-related problems. It is a matter of drafting, perhaps, but a matter of some importance.

Amendment 216 is very sensible and I hope that my noble friend the Minister will be able to help me here. I suggest that we should be quite sure that the duty of the Secretary of State is to designate one landlord redress scheme in the private sector, and no more than one.

I hope that I have covered all the amendments sufficiently and accurately. I beg to move.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, I wrote in my notes that this was “hopefully” the last day in Committee on the Bill, but I have now inserted “possibly”. Regrettably, it is my last day, because of an important appointment tomorrow that I cannot cancel.

It is appropriate for me to thank profusely all those who have helped me personally, and probably helped all of us, with their excellent briefings, as well as giving help with amendments—and, in my case, frantic email exchanges when I have not quite understood things. I refer to all those in the Renters’ Reform Coalition, the Local Government Association, the National Residential Landlords Association and Suzanne, the Independent Landlord, to name but a few.

This is a very important part of the Bill, and we largely support the first two amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, regarding having just the one scheme and changing “may” to “must”. However, I will speak to my Amendment 218, which is a simple probing amendment for what is a very complex issue. The Bill makes continuing or repeat breaches of the landlord redress scheme an offence, but not joining the scheme in the first place is merely a breach. That means that landlords can still be fined by the local authority for not joining but tenants cannot claim a rent repayment order as it is not an offence.

There is clearly an imbalance here; my amendment simply seeks to probe the Government’s reasoning for not making failure to join the scheme an offence in the first place, rather than waiting for landlords continually not to adhere to the new requirement. We want this failure to become an offence from the get-go because we believe that non-compliance with the redress scheme will have serious regulatory consequences, significantly impacting tenants’ ability to hold their landlord to account. That is the key matter on issues such as disrepair and the standard of the home. The rent repayment order gives tenants compensation for substandard accommodation and can incentivise them to report things in the first place. Interestingly, Generation Rent’s polling found that nearly one in three renters has had maintenance issues in their home, which they have reported, but their landlord has not dealt with—a simple but very telling snapshot.

In the Republic of Ireland, failure of a landlord to register a tenancy with the Residential Tenancies Board—the Irish equivalent to what we are proposing—is a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment of up to six months and a fine of €40,000, with €250 payable each day of non-registration. Perhaps they take a rather different approach.

We are concerned that, as councils are already overstretched and currently have very little resource for proactive enforcement, an undetermined number of landlords could avoid joining the redress scheme initially as they will think being discovered by the council is low risk. The risk of being reported by their tenants—who would not be eligible for a rent repayment order, so there is no incentive for them—is also very low. Both aspects are not what we want. Therefore, we feel that this imbalance does not treat seriously enough the impact that non-compliance in these matters will have in undermining and frustrating one of the fundamental tenets of the new regulatory regime. I hope that the noble Baroness will allay our concerns.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Debate between Lord Hacking and Baroness Thornhill

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

Before the Minister sits down— I am probably breaking the rules, but I do so for very good reason—I want to state to the Committee that that she was quite right on Amendment 237, and I was quite wrong.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response. I absolutely accept that my amendments were pushing at the boundaries. However, at their heart is protecting tenants from being evicted by a landlord who is acting unlawfully, almost as a matter of principle.

However, I accept that the Minister is confident that the Bill as it stands should drive compliance and that, therefore, my amendments will be unnecessary. My answer to that is that only time will tell. That leads us to group 13, where we will talk about reviews and why we need them. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, who articulated some concerns and felt that maybe we could open a dialogue on this issue. For now, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.