Draft Housing (Tenancy Deposit Schemes) Order 2026

Gideon Amos Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 General Committees

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve the Committee with you in the Chair, Sir Desmond, and to continue the almost daily tradition of meeting the Minister and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Orpington, in these Committee Rooms.

The Liberal Democrats support the principle of directing interest payments towards tenants and the schemes that they want to see for their communities. The 9,000 private tenants in Taunton and Wellington would very much like to see the proceeds of these profits being directed in that way, although we do not see any guarantee in the order that the funds will be ringfenced for the use of private tenants. Paragraph 5.6 of the draft explanatory memorandum says it is an “expectation” that

“The Secretary of State would use the funds received towards programmes or activities that benefit tenants in the private rented sector”.

Paragraph 5.8 says, as an example, that the Secretary of State could require funds to be

“used to fund a programme supporting vulnerable tenants.”

We would like to these funds to be ringfenced, so that they are used for the benefit of tenants and do not disappear into some Treasury coffer. At this stage, without that guarantee, we have difficulty supporting the order.