Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 4th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her introduction and for many helpful meetings on the Bill. I look forward to the maiden speeches of the noble Lord, Lord Wilson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brown. I declare my housing and property interests as on the register, including that I have family members who own rented property.

The Bill introduces much-needed reforms to the private rented sector—the PRS—which I greatly welcome. However, I want to address a big question that I know is in the minds of a number of your Lordships: however necessary the reforms to the PRS, will the Bill lead to large numbers of landlords exiting the market? If a lot of landlords decide this kind of investment is no longer for them, what will happen to the rental market?

A mass exodus of landlords seems very unlikely. Property remains an attractive long-term investment in uncertain times. However, analysis by the consultancy Savills shows that a gradual reduction in private rental properties has already been under way in London. Despite the arrival of the new providers of Build to Rent apartments, it seems entirely possible that the Bill will lead to more landlords selling up.

Keeping up with the new legislative requirements not only necessitates use of proper, professional lettings agents but will mean substantial investment for properties in need of modernisation. Meeting the decent homes standard comes alongside a forthcoming duty to upgrade properties to higher energy efficiency standards. Many landlords, particularly those who have borrowed heavily in the hope of making capital gains, simply lack the resources to comply with important new demands.

I conclude that the PRS will get smaller, but this is not necessarily a negative outcome. The private rented sector doubled in size in the early 2000s and, despite a tougher tax regime, there are still some 2.3 million private landlords. Meanwhile, the expansion of private renting has led the sector to take on a role for which it is not well equipped. With the steep decline in social housing—the council and housing association sector is now barely half its former size—the PRS’s expansion has had to fill the gap. Yet, private renting is seldom the best option for those needing low rents, good quality and long-term security. Nor does the enlarged PRS suit the taxpayer: the sector’s higher market rents have propelled more renters into housing benefit at escalating cost to the Exchequer. The PRS has found itself performing a role in place of councils and housing associations, which suits neither the tenants nor the public purse. The Bill could help achieve some rebalancing between the private sector and the social sector.

Of course, an expansion of provision by councils and housing associations through the building of new homes is an essential part of the Government’s plans for constructing 1.5 million homes during the course of this Parliament, but as well as a substantial new-build social housing programme, this seems an important moment to promote the purchase and modernisation of previously privately rented property to house those on lower incomes. If there are more sales of privately rented properties, and if strong enforcement of the Bill’s new measures deters purchase by less scrupulous landlords, then the opportunity—indeed, the necessity—to switch property to restock the much-diminished provision by social landlords will emerge.

Some local authorities are already active in bringing PRS rentals, including former right-to-buy private rentals, into the social housing sector, not least to provide temporary accommodation for homeless families. Buying privately rented property can achieve a speedy solution to urgent, immediate housing problems, while also being there in perpetuity as genuinely affordable, secure accommodation. This is where the housing associations of the 1960s and 1970s came in, buying and modernising the properties of Mr Rachman and his like.

It is important to note that, sometimes, owner-occupiers will step in and do up the property. No doubt some sales will transfer the homes to larger landlords, who can achieve some economies of scale and introduce professional management. However, high interest rates and the less favourable tax arrangements now in place may inhibit these buyers. For sure, local authorities will need to be on their guard to prevent property acquisitions by rogue landlords who do not intend to comply with the new environment introduced by the Bill.

How can transfers to social lettings be achieved when this legislation is enacted? I suggest that the Government look at an exemption from capital gains tax for the sales of properties from private landlords to social landlords. Such support would pay for itself in reducing the need for ever-rising housing benefit payments. Such an incentive could propel the rebalancing between sectors after so many years of decline for social housing. If the PRS were to continue to shrink by about 2% annually, the outcome could be positive, with both an additional 500,000 home owners and 500,000 more social tenancies.

In conclusion, I look forward to raising some specific issues in Committee, including the regulation of lettings agents, the constraints on switching long-term lets to short-term letting, the content of the new property register and the basis for in-tenancy rent increases. For now, I welcome the positive contribution that the Bill will make.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 22nd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, along with the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Wolf and Lady Warwick, I have signed this amendment. I spoke about this issue at Second Reading.

The noble Lord, Lord Willetts, reminded us that there are three totally different rental regimes for students: purpose-built accommodation, including large blocks; the HMOs, which are larger properties in the private rented sector; and the smaller private rented sector accommodation. The noble Lord was absolutely right to say that the achievement of so many young people in going to university has been dependent on the availability of accommodation in the private rented sector. From my time in Newcastle upon Tyne, I know how fundamentally important the PRS was to the growth of the universities in the city. I think the Government accept that a special arrangement is needed for an academic-year contract, but that has to include those in one-bedroom or two-bedroom properties; they also need to be exempted as part of ground 4A, which currently restricts the exemption to houses in multiple occupation.

The Government have Amendment 202 in this group, and I am keen to hear what the Minister will say about that and to what extent she feels it will help us solve the problem. There is a danger that unscrupulous landlords will define properties as being for students when they are not, in order to bypass the impact of this Bill when enacted. I thought a lot about that and believe that the Government can mitigate that possibility. It might be done through the register; there may be ways of delivering a solution by that means. It occurred to me that it may be possible to use non-liability for paying council tax as the basis for a system for identifying those who would qualify for Ground 4A. It would require local authority co-operation and proactive management of the private rented sector, but it can be done—and it needs to be done because students are very important to the lifeblood of many cities and towns across the country. Having a vibrant private rented sector for them to use matters.

If the Government decide that the smaller private rented sector properties do not need additional help, the likelihood, given that students would be able to give two months’ notice under the revised terms of this Bill, is that landlords will decide to stop letting properties in the private rented sector to students, or to reduce their exposure to the student-letting market.

It is a complex area. I recall the Minister saying when she summed up at Second Reading that there are difficulties and issues that have to be considered. I hope that, once she has replied and we better understand the intention of Amendment 202, we can produce something much better when the Bill is on Report.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I rise to move Amendment 266 in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Shipley. This is my first intervention in Committee, so I declare my interests: my wife owns privately rented property; I am a vice-president of the Local Government Association and of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute; I am currently chairing an inquiry into intergenerational housing, and I am on Business in the Community’s Blackpool housing advisory board.

My Amendment 266 in this group concerns student housing, but it is on a slightly different tack. While there are strong grounds against a general option of fixed-term tenancies, separate arrangements are justified for student accommodation, as indeed the Government acknowledge. My amendment is a modest tweak to the change already made by the Government to exclude student housing, except in smaller accommodation, from the prohibition on fixed-term tenancies. It would address a rather different issue. It would exempt certain purpose-built student accommodation from the private rented sector licensing schemes of local authorities, which enable councils to inspect and enforce standards for private rented property. This exemption for PBSA accommodation is justified because these schemes are already subject to high levels of scrutiny and compliance through government-approved codes of management. I am grateful to the British Property Federation for bringing this issue to my attention.

As the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, and many others have eloquently explained, purpose-built student accommodation is an important part of the rented market. It provides 724,000 beds throughout the UK, split between university owned and privately owned. There are nearly 200,000 more beds, mostly privately provided, in the pipeline. Without this sector, students would have to rely on, and would put more pressure on, the wider private rented sector, where satisfaction levels are rather lower. Lack of suitable accommodation is a major problem for students and for universities. Removing barriers to tackling the undersupply of student housing is also important in easing the strains on the rest of the private rented sector.

Local authority licensing can definitely help raise standards for the PRS, but its value does not extend to that part of the PBSA sector, which is already heavily regulated. The sector has government-recognised codes of practice under which members are inspected on a regular rolling programme, which covers the property’s condition, management and regulatory requirements. Because of the level of scrutiny required by these codes, a 2019 government-commissioned independent review found that licensing was not required for purpose-built student accommodation. It said:

“This accommodation, as a normal condition of operation mandated by the attached University, is required to implement a strict, Government recognised code of management practice … Such a code holds the accommodation to much higher standards of management and condition than any licence conditions could reasonably achieve. Properties are rigorously inspected on a regular basis (typically three times per year)”.


This MHCLG review concluded:

“Given that these properties are already highly regulated, and equivalent properties managed by Universities (to an almost identical code of practice) are exempt from licensing, licensing of such properties is manifestly redundant and extremely expensive for the operators”.


In relation to the expense for operators, local authorities can operate a licensing scheme charge on average of £700 per license, but they can charge up to £1,200, and since these fees are often charged per unit, not per scheme, not per building, a scheme of several hundred units—for example, studio flats—can incur costs in excess of hundreds of thousands of pounds. While some local authorities already offer exemptions or discounts for PBSA providers that adopt these codes of practice, this is not standard practice, and many local authorities do not offer any reduction in licensing charges. This is not really fair. PBSA was never a target for the licensing scheme, and the cost and time incurred by the licensing process does not add any benefit for students. Exemption from licensing would remove an unnecessary expense for providers, saving some of them hundreds of thousands of pounds and improving the viability of PBSA schemes.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 28th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marlesford (Con)]

The points earlier expanded on the point about affordable rent. Is the Government’s policy still that affordable rent means that it should be no more than 30% of total household income? That immediately implies—it is a glimpse of the obvious—that for one tenant a property is affordable and for another tenant with fewer assets it is not affordable.

Secondly, where I support my noble friend’s entry into the argument is on this business of the fixing of rent by the tribunal. How long does that continue? Could that be spelled out clearly? Does it apply merely for the length of time that particular tenant is there? Would it be continued if there were to be a change of tenant and the next tenant said that was the rent the tribunal had set? If we are to have tribunal-set rents, we must be told exactly how they operate.

Finally, unless the Government can answer fully and confidently the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, this Bill will certainly fail in its objective.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, in the next group of amendments there are some excellent amendments in my name and those of others that seek to resolve some of the issues raised by the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, and many other Peers on this issue. However, in this group I have a rather more pedantic set of amendments to support. I am supporting Amendments 80, 82 and 83 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe.

The Bill is, of course, concerned with the private rented sector and not social housing, where tenants’ rights are already far stronger. But housing associations, often now known as registered providers, are drawn in to some of the Bill’s measures because these bodies use assured tenancies. This means that some ingredients in the Bill do not work for them, in particular the requirement for rent increases just once a year, as the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, has explained.

The common practice in the social housing sector is to raise the rents for all tenants on one specific date, usually in the first week of April. Many housing associations provide several thousand tenancies, and it is far more efficient to have one rent increase day for everyone annually.

The Government have accepted the need for different treatment for housing associations, and Clause 7 contains measures to handle the problem. But the National Housing Federation, which brings specialist knowledge to bear on the formulation of these amendments after discussion with lawyers, feels the position would be more clearly dealt with by the wording in Amendments 80, 82 and 83.

This is indeed a rather dull set of amendments, but they would make for clarity, administrative simplicity, cost savings and fairness, and I am pleased to support these amendments.

[Lord Hardie (CB)]

My Lords, I support Amendment 90 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb. The point made by the noble Baroness and by this amendment is not academic. Recently there was a newspaper report of a case in Scotland where an elderly, vulnerable tenant was persuaded by her landlord to apply for a grant for housing improvements. The grant was available only because of the vulnerability of the tenant. She lived through the upheaval of the work and when the improvements were completed she was then faced with a demand for increased rent.

There is considerable force in this amendment. Landlords should not deny the entire benefit of improvements funded by government grants, and I urge the Minister to accept this amendment or to come forward with a government amendment to a similar effect.

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[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords, as colleagues have already said, the Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to abolish no-fault evictions. We support the measures in this Bill, particularly the provisions by which tenants can challenge rent increases. We support amendments in this group that seek to establish a fairer basis for rent increases and would prevent excessive and unpredictable increases, the severe impact of which may cause eviction and homelessness. We also support the amendments in this group that will reduce the need for tribunals to hear challenges from tenants. We feel that there is a fundamental problem with the concept of market rents, which are currently calculated by looking at a range of advertisements. This does not provide an accurate assessment of the actual rents that people are paying.

One-third of private renters are already paying half or more of their income on rent, well above the commonly accepted affordability threshold of 30%. Measures to stabilise rents within tenancies are essential to ensure that the Bill delivers the secure, stable system it promises, as well as empowering tenants to challenge unfair rent increases that result in unwanted moves.

For many renters, though, a rent increase is as good as an eviction notice. Without an established index that outlines what a fair increase looks like, the First-tier Tribunal will remain effective in supporting renters.

Rent increases must not become the new no-fault eviction. Over 300,000 renters moved last year because of a rent increase they could not afford; that is more than 900 renters a day. Market rent is an artificially high indicator for judging what an appropriate rent should be. The database proposed in the Bill, once established, would be able to capture what rents are actually being paid. This could then establish benchmarking for an appropriate rent, rather than having the traditional understanding of market rent.

Amendment 77 in my name reflects Liberal Democrat policy, which would limit any in-tenancy increase in rent to a percentage of the Bank of England base rate. This is different from inflation and other indicators that are often used. Landlords do face increasing costs from time to time, but the increases they face and want to pass on to tenants are generally more likely to be related to the cost of interest on their borrowing. Therefore, that is the appropriate measure for landlords to look to and should be considered appropriate for a rental increase. It is also often much less than the much more volatile changes in the market rent that are related to inflation.

We would relate rent increases to much more realistic, modest and accurate reflection of what landlords’ expenses are and use the Bank of England base rate as an appropriate limit on the amount of rent increase and any in-tenancy rent increase. That is the rationale behind this amendment.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 79 and the related Amendments 84 and 85 in my name and the names of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Grender and Lady Thornhill. I believe these amendments would overcome an inherent defect in the Bill, both for renters and landlords, making this a rare opportunity for amendments with appeal across the piece.

The amendments seek to protect tenants from unpredictable and unaffordable in-tenancy rent increases, but they also have distinct benefits for landlords. Together, the amendments would establish a fair basis for in-tenancy rent increases for a fixed period. As with the earlier amendments in this group from the noble Lord, Lord Hacking, and the noble Baroness, Lady Janke, the amendment would restrict rent increases to an index of inflation: in this case, either the consumer price index or an earnings index. However, in these amendments, the indexation is limited to four years, countering the concern that rents will be controlled. After four years, a market rent—if necessary decided by the First-tier Tribunal—would be allowed.

These amendments address the central issue of renters’ security, which lies at the heart of the Bill. Tenants need to know that their rented property is their home and they cannot be forced to move out by a massive rent increase. As the Housing Minister in the other place, Matthew Pennycook, said at the Bill’s Report stage in the Commons:

“Once section 21 evictions are done away with, unscrupulous landlords will no doubt attempt to evict tenants who assert their rights by means of extortionate rent rises”.—[Official Report, 14/1/25; col. 259.]


The Renters’ Reform Coalition and Shelter have campaigned assiduously for in-tenancy rent increases not to become a means of eviction by price.

The Bill’s remedy is to place a requirement on tenants to take their case to the First-tier Tribunal to set a market rent that cannot be exceeded. I argue that this whole First-tier Tribunal arrangement is a highly unsatisfactory mechanism for settling on appropriate rent levels. For a start, the outcome of tribunal hearings is unpredictable and sometimes arbitrary. Deciding on a market rent is an art, not a science. Sometimes the tribunal has accepted a case made on the basis of the asking rents advertised on Rightmove and Zoopla. Sometimes, however, the tribunal has explicitly dismissed the use of these asking rents, since there is no knowing what relationship actual rents have to the initial asking rent. Moreover, it is common practice for in-tenancy rent increases to be at lower levels than the open market rents for new tenants because landlords sensibly wish to keep their existing tenants.

There are other drawbacks to the Bill’s use of the tribunal route to determine a reasonable rent increase. First, this mechanism depends upon the renter actually taking their in-tenancy rent increase to the tribunal. This can be a daunting requirement for the renter. As Generation Rent has pointed out, very few tenants have any knowledge of the FTT. Even where renters are fully cognisant of their legal rights, many will be reluctant to go down this road, as doing so is likely to mean falling out with the landlord and negatively affecting the relationship. Taking their case to the tribunal will often involve hassle and expense, particularly if they are to present their case in person. It may require travelling a considerable distance and taking time off work, and the process itself may be intimidating. The whole business is fraught with uncertainty and anxiety.

Secondly, assuming the process is followed, the market rent determined by the tribunal may still mean that the renter faces an alarming increase. A recent Zoopla report shows market rents for new lets are 27% higher—£270 per month—than three years ago, which is an increase well above earnings growth. Many commentators are suggesting that shortages may push market rents much higher in the years to come.

The noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, mentioned the guideline of an affordable rent being 30% of take-home pay, but this is only a guideline and not a requirement of any kind on landlords. Sadly, a lot of tenants are paying over 40% of income on rent as the Affordable Housing Commission, which I had the pleasure of chairing, has shown. At that level of income-to-rent ratio, there is always the danger of arrears, let alone hardship to the renter.

From the landlord’s perspective, I suggest that the proposed regime based on appeals to the First-tier Tribunal is highly unsatisfactory. Those representing landlords have argued that large numbers of tenants could be tempted, as we have heard today, to take proposed rent increases to the FTT in the knowledge that they, the renters, have nothing to lose. They cannot be asked to pay more than the level the landlord proposes and they might be successful in arguing that the rent should be less. In any case, the process would save them money by delaying any increase until after the tribunal hearing, as we have heard, which could be months ahead.

A number of your Lordships have made the point that the number of cases referred to the tribunal could clog up the system and delay any decision being taken, at an ongoing cost to the landlord. Another way of looking at this, among the many that have been suggested, is that even if 99% of tenants accepted their landlord’s proposed rent increase, that would leave 50,000 cases still going to appeal. There is no way the FTT could deal with these numbers.

This overwhelming of the system seems more likely if rumours are true that specialist firms are planning to offer a no-win no-fee service, paid for by sharing the rental savings, to handle cases at tribunal hearings on behalf of renters. So, for both landlord and tenant, the dependency on securing a decision from the First-tier Tribunal—theoretically every year for every tenancy—is fraught with danger and potentially undermines the whole Bill.

I know the Government are rightly worried that introducing any form of rent control would have a significant detrimental impact, as history and international comparisons suggest. These Amendments 79, 84 and 85 do not undermine the overriding market principle; instead, they introduce a mechanism that removes the hazards of appeals to the First-tier Tribunal and provides the certainty of indexation for in-tenancy rent increases. After four years of occupation, the rent can be reset at the market level, determined by appeal to the FTT if necessary. Since most renters move within a five-year period, the amendment would ensure that rents are predictable throughout the great majority of tenancies.

The amendment adopts the same rent stabilisation proposition and indexing of increases devised by the Renters’ Reform Coalition, but the amendment limits this inflation indexing to a four-year period. There may be exceptional circumstances in which indexing a rent, rather than going for a market rent, could cause hardship or financial difficulty for the landlord. A case might be where the landlord spends substantial sums on upgrading the property and needs compensation from higher rents, or has borrowed heavily—probably with a buy-to-let mortgage—and needs to increase rents by a bigger margin to satisfy the lender’s requirements, driven in part by the rules of the Prudential Regulation Authority. To cover these relatively rare cases, an additional amendment could place the obligation on the landlord to go to the tribunal, rather than the tenant, to seek a setting of a market rent, instead of applying the usual indexation.

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[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

Can I ask the noble Lord to bring his remarks to an end? He has spoken for well over 10 minutes.

[Lord Best (CB)]

They introduce an arrangement that all parties could accept as a distinct improvement on the Bill’s reliance on appeals to the tribunal.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 6th May 2025 Lords Chamber

My amendments to introduce the right to request full fibre installation from the landlord would empower more households to access faster, more reliable broadband sooner. It is a cost-neutral lever the Government can pull now to help close the digital divide, while supporting their commendable digital inclusion aims, and ensure that premises across the country are not left behind, with their tenants unfairly disadvantaged socially and economically. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response and wonder whether she has alternative solutions for addressing this problem. I beg to move.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I have added my name to Amendments 134 and 135, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Janke, as has the noble Lord, Lord Black of Brentwood. The amendments seek to address a very real problem, as the noble Baroness described. Some renters are being prevented from getting advanced broadband because their landlord has not given consent for the installation of fibre to the premises, or FTTP. Openreach, by far the biggest provider, estimates that over 900,000 households in private rented accommodation are affected.

Access to fast, reliable broadband is vital to make a GP appointment, to use a bank account, to communicate with friends and family, and to shop online, and it is essential for home working. Today, adequate digital connectivity is almost as important a service as water or electricity. My home was upgraded from a hopelessly unreliable copper network to FTTP broadband, with greatly improved access to all the wonders of the internet. Why would any landlord fail to approve the installation of the necessary digital infrastructure? After all, better broadband would make their property easier to let and increase its value at no cost to the landlord.

It seems that this is not a problem of landlords rejecting requests—for example, because they wrongly fear the process will be disruptive. Rather, it is because the landlord is hard to identify or simply fails to respond. The landlord may be based overseas. They may simply not be bothered. The amendment would overcome this problem by giving the tenant the right to make a request for fibre to the premises—a request which must be considered within a fixed timescale and cannot be unreasonably withheld, just like the new renters’ right to request permission for keeping a pet.

Full-fibre broadband is mandatory for new homes. Landlord consent is likely to be obtained relatively easily from social housing providers, but some private sector renters are missing out unnecessarily. This needs to change.

Meanwhile, as well as representations from Openreach on the need for this amendment, I have heard from two other installers of fibre and the Independent Networks Cooperative Association—INCA. These have expressed some concerns. They fear that avoiding the need for the landlord’s participation in the installation process would give unfair competitive advantage to Openreach, which already has an engagement with the premises through its provision of the old copper wire system from yesteryear. The SME network providers are worried that, because Openreach is best able to install fibre without landlord consent, the amendment could give it more of a monopoly. The smaller providers point to the value of their approach, which involves them forming good relations with landlords: bringing the landlord on board ensures they know where best to drill holes for new cables, install wires across common areas, satisfy building safety regulations, et cetera.

While not addressing the problem of digital exclusion caused by unco-operative or absentee landlords, the case for ensuring a level playing field for competing providers also deserves attention. If the Government are minded to accept this amendment—I hope they will, for the sake of the tenants who can otherwise be denied all the huge benefits of fibre to the premises—new regulatory measures to accompany the amendment need to take on board the SME providers’ perspective.

With these comments, I am delighted to support the amendments.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 12th May 2025 Lords Chamber

I will also speak briefly to the amendments tabled by my noble friend Lord Roborough. I suppose I have a slightly different perspective. It worries me that we are starting to see, for example, in particular, Herefordshire, in this situation. My noble friend referred to a situation where often a property can be initially acquired at quite a low rent, or indeed as a capital purchase, because of the covenants and restrictions that have been put on it. If nobody reports this, or if the council is not that interested in enforcement, we see that people with considerable wealth can get a very good deal by having lied when they acquired that property. They can then apply after 10 years, saying, “Nobody has made a complaint about it; you haven’t kicked me out of my house or done anything like that”. We should not be rewarding unfairness in that regard either. My noble friend made a point about trying to make sure that property stays linked into the sector; it is important to make sure we continue to have a fair society, not one where people lie in order to gain.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I want to say a few words about Amendment 182 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey—not, I am afraid, in support of it. Is it fair that tenants residing in rural properties should have different treatment from those in the rest of the country? I have been responsible for a number of rural housing schemes—indeed, I recently chaired the Devon Housing Commission, looking at the issues facing communities in Devon—and I suggest that there are a number of reasons why it is fair to treat tenants in rural areas rather differently from those in the rest of the country.

First, it is much more difficult if a property is sold and therefore does not come back for reletting. We now know, Right to Buy being a matter of history, that after a period you will not get the relets, the opportunity for more people to enter those properties, in the years ahead. It is more difficult to replace properties in a village than in a town. If we lose the six houses that we have built in that village, they are gone for ever. It often takes years to acquire a site, convince the parish council and deal with the landowners. It takes a very long time to get those six homes built and we do not want to lose them if we can possibly help it, because in the future we will regret that.

My second reason is that the amount of social housing—housing association and council housing—in rural areas is appreciably less than in the rest of the country. It is about 11% for areas classified as rural locations compared with 17% for the rest of the country, including the rural areas, so there are already signs of acute shortage of affordable social housing in many areas, and we cannot really afford to lose what we have.

The third reason is that most of the developments in rural areas, or village areas, are small developments, and there is therefore no requirement to do affordable housing—to have a proportion of the homes that are available at subsidised low rents—so most of the development that is going to happen in rural areas, being less than 10 homes, is not going to have any affordable housing attached to it. We have to hang on, if we possibly can, to the properties that we have and then relet them later on.

My fourth reason is that, as the noble Baroness said, prices are higher but wages are lower. It is much more difficult in rural areas for local people to find any housing other than social housing that they can genuinely afford. There are the retirees moving in—in the case of Devon, from the south-east very often into the south-west. There are more affluent commuters paying more than locals can afford on their salaries. There are second homes—we are going to be talking soon about short-term lets, Airbnb and holiday lets—so locals are priced out, and it becomes a precious commodity to retain those few rural social houses, so I am afraid that I am unable to support Amendment 182.

[Baroness Grender (LD)]

My Lords, these Benches recognise the vital importance of our rural and agricultural communities, who operate under the more specialised and long-standing tenancy agreements. Such tenancies often span many years, involve successive generations and reflect a connection between the land and those who work it, going well beyond the norms found in other areas of the rental sector. We fully appreciate the challenges that tenants and landlords may face under those arrangements, particularly when legislation risks creating ambiguity or disruption.

When I looked at these amendments, it struck me that discretionary rather than mandatory powers would be a very useful thing to have, so it is hugely ironic that the noble Lord, Lord Roborough, raised my own amendments on this issue. I would have thought that a discretionary approach for any decision in the courts may well be useful in this context. However, while we are sympathetic to the concerns raised, that sympathy does not translate into ready support for Amendments 176, 177 and 182. It is our understanding that the Bill will not apply to residential property let under a farm business tenancy or an Agricultural Holdings Act tenancy but will apply to any residential property on a holding that is subsequently sublet on what we now know as an assured shorthold tenancy, and it will in future have grounds for possession as set out in other parts of the Bill.

We also understand that a process will be in place for landlords to avoid inadvertently creating assured agricultural occupancies, and we fully back the words of the noble Lord, Lord Best, as ever, with regard to rural communities and retention of, in particular, social housing. We believe firmly that local authorities know best and should be given the powers to make decisions over those social homes, with the right level of localism and autonomy. With that said, we look forward with interest to hearing the Minister’s response but remain unconvinced by these three amendments as set out.

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Moved by

[Lord Best]

181: Schedule 2, page 199, line 6, at end insert—
“Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008
57A In Schedule 3 to the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 (enactments specified for the purposes of Part 1), in the suitable place insert—“Tenant Fees Act 2019 (c.4)””Member's explanatory statement
This amendment integrates the Tenant Fees Act 2019 into Schedule 3 to the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. It enables a Primary Authority to support local authorities to give assured advice to lettings agents on achieving compliance under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. Providing this advice will support lettings businesses and reduce pressure on local authorities' enforcement teams.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I repeat my declaration of interest as a vice-president of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute as well as of the Local Government Association.

Trading standards represent an important ingredient in achieving the objectives of the Bill: they are the front line in enforcement of key measures of good practice by property agents carrying out lettings activities. To assist local businesses of all kinds and the trade associations that represent and advise them, arrangements are in place for primary authorities—local authorities able to provide specialist advice on a range of consumer protection legislation. Primary authorities cover different aspects of property matters and support property agents, as well as their trade association Propertymark and the Property Ombudsman. These arrangements enable authoritative assured advice to be given to property agents, who can then rely on that advice in dealing with any query or dispute. It relieves local authorities’ enforcement teams from dealing with queries, complaints and misdemeanours that could be avoided if assured advice was available.

Demand for high-quality advice is likely to grow as a result of the Renters’ Rights Bill. More landlords are likely to make use of letting agents to ensure that all regulatory requirements are being met. The letting agents, in turn, need the best possible advice on the extensive legislative measures that affect their client landlords. A problem here, however, is that current arrangements for assured advice do not extend to aspects of lettings activities in the Tenant Fees Act 2019. This legislation bans agents from charging fees to tenants as well as to landlords. Since the introduction of that legislation, local authorities have been anxious for this area of letting agency work to be included in the assured advice arrangements.

This small amendment would mean that lettings advice covering the Tenant Fees Act, on which property agency businesses can rely, would at last be available, and that local authority enforcement authorities can act with confidence. It is an entirely helpful amendment in tidying up a piece of defective legislation, and it fully supports the objectives of the Renters’ Rights Bill. I am not expecting passionate expressions of support from lots of your Lordships for this somewhat technical amendment, but I hope the Minister will say that it meets with the Government’s approval. I am pleased to move it.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

I am going to disappoint the noble Lord, Lord Best, as I rise very briefly because I feel that this ties in quite neatly with his later amendments on letting agents becoming more professional and having better qualifications. Any means that will reduce the pressure on local authority enforcement teams are very much to be welcomed. The amendment is techy but simple, and I think it could be effective.

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[Lord Best (CB)]

I am much encouraged by that response from the Minister, and I am happy to beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment 181 withdrawn.

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Moved by

[Lord Best]

185: After Clause 32, insert the following new Clause—
“Restrictions on conversion of assured tenancies to short-term lettings(1) Where a property has been let subject to an assured tenancy or assured shorthold tenancy at any time in the preceding three years, it must not be let as a short-term rental property within the meaning of section 228(2) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 unless a change of use has been permitted under the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (S.I. 1987/764) as amended by subsection (2).(2) In Schedule 1 of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (S.I. 1987/764), at the end of part C insert—“Class C7. Short term rental property
Use of a dwellinghouse for commercial short-term letting, within the meaning of section 228(2) of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023.””Member’ s explanatory statement
This clause requires planning consent for assured or assured shorthold tenancies to be converted into short-term lettings.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I apologise for leading two groups of amendments in a row.

Amendment 185, in my name and the names of the noble Lords, Lord Truscott and Lord Young of Cookham and the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, seeks to add a new clause to the Bill that would require planning consent before assured or shorthold tenancies can be converted into short-term lettings. The definition of “short-term letting” is defined in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. These lettings are often referred to as “Airbnb lets”, although several companies handle them.

I note that the amendment would not affect the letting of spare rooms to supplement the family income or temporary use of an owner-occupier’s home, when, for example, they are away on holiday. Instead, the amendment would cover the switching of privately rented properties from ordinary, longer-term lettings for those living and working locally to short-term lets for visitors. This phenomenon is having a serious impact on housing shortages in a number of tourist hotspots. In some places, the loss of PRS lettings has reached critical proportions, from seaside towns to national parks and historic cities. Appallingly, there are many examples of landlords serving notices to quit—thereby evicting tenants—so that long-established renters can be replaced with higher-paying lettings to tourists.

According to AirDNA, which tracks the lettings by Airbnb and similar companies, York saw an increase of nearly 30% in short-term lets in the city between August 2021 and August 2023. York now has more than 2,000 such lets. In Coniston, in the Lake District, 50% of homes are not lived in full-time. In the picturesque town of Salcombe, Devon, it is understood that around 40% of the accommodation now comprises second homes or short-term lettings; I commend the relevant section in the Devon Housing Commission report on that.

The switching phenomenon also has a particular relevance in London: a survey by the property consultants, Savills, found 117,000 homes listed for short-term letting on the Airbnb and Vrbo websites last year in just 12 London boroughs. The survey found that over half were let for more than the 90 days permitted in London and, in the central London boroughs, 40% of the private rented sector was let on a short-term basis. In many other European and American cities, action is being taken to address this problem. Indeed, Wales and Scotland have legislated to reduce the impact of losing homes for locals to rent.

In England, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 has provided the basis for a start to be made. The Act requires the Secretary of State to introduce mandatory registration for short-term lets. This measure would provide local authorities with an evidence base on which to decide whether the level of short-term lettings in their area should be restricted. Regulations under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act would prohibit the use of short-term lets of non-registered properties. Introducing registration would be a good starting point but, so far, no action has been taken.

In February 2024, Michael Gove, then Secretary of State, announced that the Government would be taking this issue to the next stage, using the planning system to control switchovers to short-term lets where the local planning authority deemed this necessary. To inform the details of this new regime, a government consultation considered the introduction of a new use class for planning purposes, enabling local authorities to refuse permission for a change of use from a long-term to a short-term letting. This consultation exercise produced near-unanimous agreement that such action would be an invaluable mechanism to discourage further expansion of the so-called Airbnb sector in specific places. The Government of the day pledged to take this forward at pace. Sadly, no action followed.

The previous Government reformed the tax regime for furnished holiday lets, and this has now come into force. The change removes a strong incentive for flipping properties from long-term to short-term letting, but the Renters’ Rights Bill may mean that more landlords are now being tempted to flip their properties, making the introduction of a new use class, which would enable councils to intervene, the more urgent. Amendment 185 is intended to provide the opportunity for the Government to progress the action needed to amend planning law by creating a new use class for short-term lettings, empowering each local authority to decide whether it is in the interests of their community to permit changes of use from long-term to short-term lets. The Minister for Housing and Planning in the other place, Matthew Pennycook, has demonstrated an appreciation of this issue and has promised to take further action—but when?

If the Minister is not able to accept this amendment, it would be helpful if she could update the Committee on the timetable for introducing first, the short-term lettings registration scheme and, secondly, the legislation to create a new use class for short-term lets. Action is overdue. I beg to move.

[Lord Truscott (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, as mentioned previously in Committee, I declare my interest as a landlord and former long-term tenant in the private rented sector. I support the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Best, on short lets requiring planning consent for properties to be converted into short-term lettings. As your Lordships’ House would expect, the noble Lord, Lord Best, has made the case convincingly.

His Majesty’s Government should include this amendment in the Bill, because there is an undoubted link between the reduced availability of long lets, especially for local residents, and the exponential rise in Airbnb and other short-let platforms. A register, while welcome, will mainly chart the huge and expanding nature of this part of the PRS, which is already having such a deleterious effect on the provision of long-term accommodation for locals and their communities. The Minister may say this amendment is not a matter for the Bill, but it is. The Bill will accelerate the trends of short lets and reduce long lets unless amended. By introducing periodic tenancies with a minimum two-month notice period, it will simply introduce another class of short lets protected by law and destabilise the long-term lets market.

The PRS has not grown in the last nine years, as I mentioned previously in Committee. The Bill, by prohibiting upfront rental payments and fixed-term tenancies, will lead to evermore landlords moving to short lets. This trend is completely ignored by the Bill but will follow as surely as night follows day.

Tenants will be able to give two months’ notice on day one under the proposed legislation. Why should they do that? Because long lets are up to four times cheaper than short lets in, for example, the London Borough of Camden. Once tenants move in, the length of their tenancy will be impossible to police. If tenants move out after only a month rather than the minimum two, how will that be monitored and by whom? It will result in widespread short lets by the back door. A tourist could simply move into what was previously a long let, give two months’ notice and save thousands of pounds. It would just take a little fib on the part of the tenant.

A landlord will have no way of knowing a tenant’s real intentions under periodic tenancies, so will put up the rent, assuming that all long lets can become short lets. The distinction between short and long lets will disappear, with implications for rent levels. Neither the prohibition of mutually agreed fixed-term tenancies nor advanced rental payments were in Labour’s election manifesto, so I am at a loss to understand why these two essential measures to provide stability and certainty to the market have become non-negotiable. The majority of tenants want fixed terms, so I fail to see why HMG think they know better than the tenants themselves. Reducing the supply of long lets as ever more landlords gravitate towards more profitable short lets will mean that rents will assuredly go up, not down, and the losers will be the tenants, especially local residents and their sense of community.

The noble Lord, Lord Best, mentioned London and Devon. I have quoted before how some London housing blocks have become over 90% Airbnb or similar short lets. Local residents are squeezed out. Devon is a county I know well; I am a Devonian. The noble Lord, Lord Best, quoted the example of Salcombe, Devon’s answer to Saint-Tropez. Similar cases can be quoted throughout the West Country and Wales, including Cornwall. However, as the noble Lord said, it is not just coastal resorts and historic cities such as Bath, which I also know well, and York, that are affected. Areas around Birmingham have also become short-let hotspots.

Of course, it is not only the UK. Airbnb and the like have reached saturation point in Spain, in cities such as Barcelona and on Tenerife. It has become so bad, with locals priced out of accommodation, that tourists have been assaulted in restaurants and on beaches. As I mentioned, short lets are far more profitable for landlords than long lets. Airbnb and other short-let platforms are becoming increasingly dominated by professional landlords, as regulation is either non-existent or very light-touch.

By way of comparison, long-let residential property is already governed by 170 laws and regulations. The attractions for landlords to move to short lets is obvious and will be enabled by this Bill. Apart from the further regulatory and legal provisions in the Bill, long-let landlords will be asked by HMRC to make quarterly tax returns by April 2026, and new EPC regulations could cost anything up to £15,000 per property. Estate agents must report long-term rentals to HMRC in this country. Airbnb and the like do not, and I suspect that tax evasion is rampant.

Renting out flats or rooms on Airbnb or other short-let platforms undermines long-term rentals, legitimate B&Bs and smaller hotels, all of whom must pay taxes, abide by a host of regulations, employ local people and support local economies. With more and more remote professional landlords, Airbnb does none of that. The idea that Airbnb and other similar platforms allow a few grannies to innocently rent out their spare rooms is far from the true picture.

The impact of short lets is also pernicious. They undermine any sense of community, create nuisance for full-time residents and can be a security risk for blocks of flats, with Airbnbers having raucous parties and coming and going at all hours of the night and day. As the noble Lord, Lord Best, said, research has found that half of London’s 117,000 short holiday lets are being rented out illegally. In Westminster, where over 50% of residents live in rented property, council leader Adam Hug has said that short lets

“can hollow out long-term residents, making neighbours subject to significant noise disruption, fly-tipped waste linked to short-term let properties”.

In 2015, there were fewer than 30,000 short lets in London. This more than doubled throughout 2016, peaking at over 100,000 in 2019. As Tom Copley, Sir Sadiq Khan’s London Deputy Mayor for Housing, said,

“we need to bring those properties back into use as long-term rented properties or long-term properties for people to buy and live in as owner-occupiers”.

This Bill as drafted will legalise ever more short lets, as tenants will be able to legally move out of a property after just two months.

I had experience of an Airbnb rented flat in a block where short lets were banned under the lease. The owner was fully aware of this fact and kept denying the property was rented out on Airbnb, despite the property being advertised openly on the website. Airbnb takes no action in these situations. In our case, it took over two years for the owner to be forced to abandon Airbnb, despite his flat being the only short let in the block. People were coming and going every few days, and wear and tear on the communal areas and concern for security were considerable.

The only action which reined in the current leaseholder was a threat by the excellent managing agent to go to court to get him to forfeit the lease. HMG have previously said this option will be banned, so I wonder how such situations could be resolved in the future. I would retain the nuclear option of forfeiture but exclude it for death and other relatively minor transgressions.

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[Lord Jamieson (Con)]

Thank you very much.

[Lord Best (CB)]

I am grateful to noble Lords around the Committee for their support for the amendment. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, who emphasised the urgency of the situation, and the position in many other places—Paris, Barcelona, Menorca, Santa Monica —where other countries are getting ahead of us in taking action that we should probably learn from. He mentioned, as did the noble Lord, Lord Young, the disruption to other residents that comes from short-term lettings, and the nuisance of parties, fly-tipping and security problems. That is not the main reason for the proposed amendment, but it is an important additional factor, which emphasises its importance.

The noble Lord, Lord Young, said that we must strike a balance between the interests of the tourism industry and the interests of those who are looking for somewhere to live—and the local authority is best placed to do that. The noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, was a bit worried about owner-occupiers being badly affected and not being able to let out their properties, when they were on holiday, for example. I think the amendment takes care of that; it certainly should. It is not the individual owner who lets out their spare room, or even the whole house, for a week or two that we are talking about here; it is the businesses that operate on some scale.

I am grateful to the CPRE, the Countryside Charity, for helping to formulate the amendment, and I give many thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, who made important points. We must protect the current supply of accommodation at a time when we are worried about the loss of any homes, which are badly needed. I will withdraw the amendment, but, as I do so, I thank the Minister for telling us about registration. I think that the timescale was that testing would take place for a new registration scheme for short-term lettings over the next 12 months, with a first version then being tried. It is all good stuff, but it sounds slightly slow—the “as soon as possible” bit was the best bit.

The Minister said that other solutions, alongside the possibility of introducing a use class that works—that must be part of it—were being considered. Pulling the right levers is obviously going to be important. Yes, the Government are prepared to do something, but they should take away the message that the speed at which it is done will be important too. We cannot let this fester much longer. With those comments, I beg leave—

[Baroness Coffey (Con)]

The noble Lord referred to my comments. What I was doing was reading out his amendment where it says:

“Where a property has been let subject to an assured tenancy or assured shorthold tenancy at any time in the preceding three years, it must not be let as a short-term rental property … unless a change of use has been permitted”.


I was trying to understand whether, when there is a change in ownership—not just any old renting out if somebody goes away—that would prevent a new owner-occupier being able to do what is suggested without planning permission. I was just trying to understand his own amendment.

[Lord Best (CB)]

I am grateful for that point, which sounds entirely valid. We may need to refine still further the amendment that we are all working on. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 185 withdrawn.

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Moved by

[Lord Best]

203: After Clause 63, insert the following new Clause—
“Training and qualifications of property agents managing assured tenancies(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations require that individuals undertaking the activities of a property agent in respect of management of assured tenancies must have, or be working toward, specific mandatory qualifications, as defined by regulations to demonstrate competency to undertake their property agency roles.(2) Regulations under this section—(a) are to be made by statutory instrument;(b) may make provision generally or only in relation to specific cases;(c) may make different provision for different purposes;(d) may include supplementary, incidental, or transitional provision;(e) must specify classes or types of employees who must be qualified and the appropriate qualification level for each such group;(f) must specify syllabuses and testing methods for qualifications;(g) must specify means of training provision and minimum training hours;(h) must specify requirements for continuous professional development;(i) must approve providers for the provision of training and qualifications.(3) A statutory instrument containing regulations under this section is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.”

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, this is a slightly longer amendment, but I will take it at a brisk pace. Amendments 203 and 204 in my name and the names of the noble Lords, Lord Young of Cookham and Lord Truscott, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayter of Kentish Town and Lady Thornhill, relate to the implementation of recommendations from the governmental regulation of property agents—ROPA—working group, aimed at protecting consumers from dodgy or inept estate agents, letting agents and managing agents.

Your Lordships have considered and endorsed the case for regulating property agents on a number of occasions since the ROPA report was published by the Government in 2019. Your Lordships’ Industry and Regulators Committee endorsed the recommendations only last year. Indeed, the Housing and Planning Minister, Matthew Pennycook MP, has made clear that the Government accept the case for regulation of the sector, so there is no need for me to rehearse the arguments again. Indeed, the professional bodies and trade associations, including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Property Institute, Propertymark and the Lettings Industry Council have persistently supported the ROPA agenda. Those who would be regulated are as keen on regulation as those consumers who would be protected by it.

However, I fear that the Housing Minister feels that the new measures for ROPA will have to wait until a later date. It is possible that the forthcoming leasehold and commonhold reform Bill will include regulatory measures for the managing agents of leasehold property —a part of the property agency sector where there have been many complaints of abuses and incompetence. However, that Bill only covers leasehold property and is unlikely to incorporate lettings agents, and its timetable is uncertain. The Renters’ Rights Bill presents an important opportunity to take a first step towards creating a proper regulatory framework for the property agency sector. This Bill is concerned with the deal faced by renters and letting agents, who are involved with half the properties in the PRS. This is a chance to raise standards, and a timely one.

The ROPA working group, in recommending the creation of a regulator for property agents, emphasised the need for proper qualifications as well as adherence to a code of practice. At present, anyone can set up a property agency business overnight with no experience of property matters.

Amendment 203 would require the relevant agents to have or be working toward mandatory qualifications. Since the Bill relates only to lettings, its requirement for proper qualifications can affect only lettings agents; and since setting up a fully-fledged regulator just for lettings agents could be seen as disproportionate, this amendment is strictly limited to the requirement for qualifications, which is the most basic of a regulatory regime.

However, without the establishment of a regulator, how can even this somewhat tentative step be taken toward creating a more professional property management sector? Who, in the absence of a regulator, can enforce the new regulatory requirements for qualifications set out in Amendment 203?

Local Authorities’ Trading Standards Officers could check that legal requirements are being met in their area, but, to protect the consumer, a robust national mechanism is needed to operationalise this amendment’s requirements for agents to hold the necessary qualifications before acting for landlords and taking responsibility for rental properties.

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[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Best, for his amendments relating to the regulation of property agents. I also thank the noble Lords, Lord Young, Lord Truscott and Lord Jamieson, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Grender and Lady Coffey, who have all spoken in this debate, as well as my noble friends Lady Warwick and Lady Hayter.

Amendment 203 would enable the Secretary of State, through subsequent secondary legislation, to introduce professional qualifications for property agents who manage assured tenancies. I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Best, for his continued engagement on such an important topic—I do regard it as such. He is an ardent campaigner for driving up standards across all property agents, not just letting agents, who are the focus of this amendment.

The Housing Minister and I have had a number of conversations with the noble Lord on how best to raise levels of professionalism. We recognise the challenges that tenants and landlords can face when using letting agents. Many agents provide a good service, but some do not.

The Government are committed to ensuring that landlords and those living in the rented and leasehold sectors are protected from abuse and poor service at the hands of unscrupulous agents. On the point from the noble Lord, Lord Young, about parity with the social housing sector, we want to ensure consistency with our work to drive up management standards in the social housing sector. We are aware that in some blocks, including those managed by social landlords, managing agents will be providing services for both leaseholders and social housing tenants. It is important to ensure that any measures we bring forward on managing agent regulation take full account of other legal requirements, including qualifications proposed for the social housing sector.

Protections are already in place to make sure that both tenants and landlords are treated fairly by letting agents and can hold them to account. This includes the Tenant Fees Act 2019, which bans most letting fees and caps tenancy deposits paid by tenants in the private rented sector in England, and the requirement for all property agents, including letting agents, to be members of a government-approved redress scheme.

The Housing Minister made a Written Ministerial Statement on 21 November 2024 which set out the Government’s intention to revisit the 2019 report from the noble Lord, Lord Best, on regulating the property agent sector. We continue to engage across the sector to improve standards among property agents. We welcome the ongoing work being undertaken by the industry itself, as well as by the noble Lord, Lord Best, and my noble friend Lady Hayter.

We are continuing to consider this issue carefully and have already announced our intention to introduce minimum qualifications for property managing agents of leasehold properties and estate managers of freehold estates, and to consult on this issue this year. We will set out our full position on the regulation of letting, managing and estate agents in due course. I thank my noble friend Lady Warwick for the strong evidence she provided about why that is necessary.

Amendment 204 would have the effect that a property agent who manages assured tenancies may be part of a mandatory redress scheme only if they meet the relevant qualification requirements. In practice, this amendment would place responsibility for ensuring the appropriate property agent has the relevant qualifications on the Property Ombudsman and Property Redress. It would also give these redress schemes the power to award a financial penalty for non-compliance.

The main role of redress schemes is to deal with individual complaints by tenants against their agent. The existing redress schemes have a number of levers at their disposal, including the ability to award compensation to a tenant or a landlord where things have gone wrong. They may also expel members from their scheme. However, redress schemes are not designed to be enforcement bodies, so it would not be appropriate to give them powers to issue a financial penalty. Such measures should be reserved for enforcement authorities, such as local authorities. Furthermore, expulsion from or failure to join a redress scheme will not expressly prevent an agent from trading, although it does mean that the agent is in breach of regulations and liable for enforcement action by the local authority.

The question of who is best placed to enforce qualification measures is important and is certainly something the Government are taking into account as part of their consideration of the regulation of managing, letting and estate agents. As I have mentioned before, we will set out our position on this in due course. I am happy to meet the noble Lord, Lord Best, and any other noble Lord to discuss this issue further. However, with these assurances, I hope that the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I am deeply grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken. The noble Lord, Lord Young, drew attention to the fact that social housing providers are now required to have qualifications, and the same should go for the private sector—perhaps even more so. The noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, reminded us of Awaab’s law, introduced by the previous Government after the death of little Awaab Ishak, and the dangers of housing management not operating smoothly and for the safety of the occupiers. She said that this business was a job for professionals—for properly qualified people—and so it is.

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, who made the point that managing agents, property agents and letting agents are dealing with millions of pounds-worth of clients’ money. It is actually billions rather than millions. A really serious commitment is required of these agents. The noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, was not so sure that qualifications and training would make any difference. I think this is a bit out of step with the sector itself, the profession, which is asking very urgently for regulation to drive out those who are not worthy of being part of that profession, just as we would expect accountants, doctors and lawyers all to have qualifications before they undertake important tasks.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 14th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, I have an interest to declare, as my family owns land in Cookham with a quarter of a mile of river frontage along the Thames and one of its tributaries, but we have never accommodated houseboats. I have added my name to Amendment 262, so ably spoken to by Lord Cashman, and it is appropriate that houseboats are linked in this group of amendments with mobile homes, about which the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, has just spoken. In both cases, the home is owned or rented by the owner, but the land or water on which it rests is owned by somebody else. This leads to issues of security mentioned by the three previous speakers, as the home—which, as we have heard from the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, may cost a quarter of a million pounds—has really no value unless it is on land or secured to land. To that extent, there is some comparison with leaseholders, because the flat owner owns the flat, but he does not own the land on which it is based. That is the point that I want to make.

All three tenures—leaseholders, mobile home owners and boat owners—have varying degrees of security. Right at the top of the scale are leaseholders, whose rights have been progressively improved over the last 50 years, and more rights are promised in forthcoming legislation. Lower down the scale are mobile home owners. They have rights; as a Minister, I put on the statute book the Mobile Homes Act 1983. That legislation was then succeeded by other legislation, further improving the rights of mobile home owners. By contrast, houseboat owners are right at the bottom of the list and have very little security. So far, all Governments have refused to make any progress.

I will not repeat the problems facing boat owners that have been so ably mentioned, but I just make this point. In answer to a Question on 17 January, the Minister in the other place said:

“The government recognises that while the occupants of residential boats have the benefit of protection under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and wider consumer … legislation, they do not enjoy the same level of … security as those in the private rented sector. We will consider what action might be necessary to provide houseboat residents … with greater security in their homes”.


That is exactly what Amendment 262 does. It asks the Government to review the security of houseboat residents, which the Answer said they are going to do anyway. So, I honestly do not see why the Minister has any reason not to accept this amendment, as it simply is in line with an Answer given by her parliamentary colleague only three months ago.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, my name is down in support of Amendment 262 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, which, as he so eloquently explained, calls for a review of the position of river houseboat residents. I also support his Amendment 206A, which would give houseboat residents similar protections to those afforded to renters in the Bill before us. Protections are needed for those on houseboats against evictions and massive increases in mooring fees and licences, which are simply not affordable to many who have made their homes on our rivers and canals.

I couple these houseboat amendments with Amendment 206B, so convincingly covered by the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, and supported by the noble Lord, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, which would enhance the rights of those living in so-called mobile homes, often known as “park homes”. There are obvious parallels between those living in mobile homes where the site is owned by someone else and those living in houseboats, where, again, the resident does not own the place where their home is situated, as the noble Lord, Lord Young, explained. In both cases, there is a need for protection just as much for the rights of those occupiers as for those living in permanent bricks and mortar homes that cannot be moved.

I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, for her fearless campaigning for Gypsy and Traveller rights, and I will not attempt to speak on her expert amendments in respect of those communities.

My interest in respect of mobile homes stems from the Mobile Homes Act, which the former MP, Peter Aldous, introduced as a Private Member’s Bill and I piloted through your Lordships’ House in 2013. Today, some 200,000 people—many of them elderly—occupy such mobile homes, on about 2,000 sites. Although some are living in happy communities, there have been too many cases of unfair practices by site owners taking advantage of those residents.

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[Lord Hacking (Lab)]

I congratulate our Chair on going through these complicated provisions. She is doing very well and should receive congratulations from all of us.

We now move on to the chapter relating to the private rented sector database, which is an essential component in the efficient bringing in of the provisions of the Bill. The database should be set up even before the Act comes into force.

Amendment 219 seeks an obligation that the database operator must establish and operate the database within one year of the Act being passed. It seeks to set down a timetable for the bringing in of the database. All these amendments, like my earlier amendments, are meant to be tidying-up amendments and helpful to all of us taking part in this debate. The other amendments in my name in this group are Amendments 231 and 232. In an earlier version of the grouping, Amendment 237 was in this group but somehow it has disappeared. Can it be brought back to this group so we can discuss it as well?

Amendment 231 would require

“the database operator to ensure that facilities are available for persons to report breaches of any requirement”

by means other than a computer. I have already spoken to the problems of the computer inept, including myself, and my noble friend the Minister is sympathetic on that issue.

Amendment 232 would require

“the database operator to ensure that facilities are available for people to access information on the database, in situations where they do not have access to a computer or electronic device”.

Again, it would help those such as me, who are digitally inept.

Amendment 237 would remove

“the exception for landlords to be registered on the private rented sector database before a court can grant possession in cases”

under ground 7A of the Housing Act 1998, as amended; for example, proceedings brought by the landlord for possession for anti-social behaviour. That seems to be a sensible amendment. There should not be restraint on a landlord bringing such proceedings, which are socially vital for the community in which those tenants are playing a part.

Those are all the amendments. I hope I have been able to describe them lucidly and correctly to your Lordships. I beg to move.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 220 and 225. Amendment 220, in my name and those of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Thornhill and Lady Kennedy of Cradley, is the first of several amendments to support and enhance the Bill’s proposals for a PRS database. I am grateful to my noble colleagues and also to the Lettings Industry Council, Generation Rent, and the Large Agents Representation Group for help in drafting these amendments.

The database, as proposed by Clause 76, will contain some basic information about the landlord and the property. This will assist local authorities in the carrying out of their duties in the enforcement of required standards in the PRS—private rented sector. It will save councils time and money—chasing landlords for the information the council needs and locating properties failing to meet statutory requirements.

However, the database can do much more than this, and Amendment 220 makes it clear that it can have a wider, more significant role. It would surely be a wasted opportunity if the property database was of use only to local authorities. The amendment makes it clear that information on the database should also be available for the benefit of tenants, landlords and their agents. Not least, this new resource should enable landlords and agents to identify any obligation for them to obtain a licence from the local authority where the property is subject to a licensing requirement and would assist them in making such an application.

For tenants and prospective tenants, Amendment 220 makes explicit what is surely intended; namely, that the database is being created to provide important information for those seeking a property to rent who want essential details about their future home and its landlord.

Amendment 225 seeks to assist the new database process by clarifying that its functionality should allow data to be uploaded by landlords’ agents as well as by the landlords themselves; otherwise, landlords will need to be contacted constantly by agents to obtain the information they need. With around half of rented property being supported by lettings agents, this tweak is another reason why the amendment is a necessary addition to the Bill.

This property portal amendment is supported by those representing renters and those representing landlords and property agents. With the additional features that we will discuss in the next group, these amendments seek to ensure that the database has a transformative impact in raising standards, helping enforcement and widening knowledge of all the properties in the sector.

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Moved by

[Lord Best]

221: Clause 76, page 110, line 18, at end insert—
“(d) entries containing details of landlord gas safety records and landlord electrical installation condition reports for dwellings which are or intended to be let under residential tenancies.” Member’s explanatory statement
This would include landlord records of gas and electrical safety checks in the PRS database. Permits the Secretary of State to make regulations to enable the PRS database to register landlord records of gas and electrical safety checks.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 221, 224, 227, 229 and 230. These amendments are in my name and those of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Thornhill and Lady Kennedy of Cradley. The noble Lord, Lord Young, apologises for his unavoidable absence but underlines his support for the amendments. I thank all those noble colleagues for supporting these amendments.

The amendments relate to the content of the new database, a property portal. They add key items to the information to be provided. Amendments 221, 224 and 227 would add landlord records of gas and electrical safety checks, with definitions of what these comprise. Currently, there is a national digital register of all energy performance certificates, and these EPCs will be brought together with details of the letting. However, there is no register for the critical landlord gas safety or electrical checks. These are frequently lost or neglected, and tenants may be unaware of them. The PRS database provides an opportunity to have these vital safety certifications brought into the digital age and made available widely, to ensure the safety of rented property. Building safety is now a national concern, and details of these checks represent important content for prospective tenants as well as for local authorities.

Am I right in thinking that the Government intend to consult on further items to be covered by the database and that, as part of the consultation, there will be the opportunity to add items to go into this new portal? I would include many of the extra items listed in Amendments 222 and 228, in the names of the noble Baronesses, Lady Thornhill and Lady Grender. For example, listing rent levels would provide invaluable data for the First-tier Tribunals, which will be taking decisions on market rent levels. A further addition it would be good to see would be a categorisation of properties suitable for people using wheelchairs or with mobility problems. To have this information readily available via the database would be helpful not just to renters seeking accessible accommodation, but to the landlord with an adapted property who is looking for tenants who can make use of the adaptations.

Finally, Amendments 229 and 230 would require the PRS database to make use of the unique property reference number, to which the Minister has already referred, as the identifier for every property on the database. This valuable and reliable tool already exists as a means of identifying any specific property. Noble Lords may not be aware that all their homes already have such a number—a UPRN, which can dramatically speed up the search for a particular house or flat. The Bill provides the perfect opportunity to put this excellent facility to good use. A pilot scheme utilising UPRNs in Nottingham has demonstrated that councils get a sixfold return from investing in this approach and streamlining the property data for collection for their area. The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, jumped the gun in welcoming Amendment 230. I will save her having to do so again and thank her now.

In conclusion, and in relation to all the amendments in my name and those of colleagues, to whom I offer my thanks, I believe them to be acceptable and agreeable to the organisations representing renters, landlords and property agents. I hope that the Minister can support them and I look forward to her response. I beg to move.

[Baroness Grender (LD)]

My Lords, my Amendment 228 seeks to enhance transparency and oversight in the private rented sector by requiring the database to include information on tenancy disputes. This would cover a range of issues, including disputes about rent levels. It would also record the outcome of each case and how long it took to reach a resolution.

This is, at its heart, a proposal for greater clarity. It is not intended to be punitive, nor to cast all landlords in a negative light—quite the opposite. It is an opportunity to reward good landlords. Those who respond quickly to issues, resolve disputes fairly and demonstrate a commitment to their tenants should have that record reflected and recognised. Too often, the private sector operates in the shadows, with tenants unsure of their rights and little visibility of how disputes are handled behind closed doors. This amendment would bring to light that process by recording the nature of a dispute, the parties involved, the outcome and the time taken to resolve it. We would therefore create a more informed and accountable system.

For tenants, this information is empowering. It helps them to make better decisions about where and with whom they rent. For landlords, it provides an incentive to act responsibly and promptly, knowing that their actions contribute to a public record. For policymakers and regulators, it offers a valuable source of data to identify patterns, spot areas of concern and improve enforcement.

The inclusion of rent level disputes is especially important for improving transparency. At a time when affordability is a growing concern, making this information available would provide clear insight into how disagreements over rent are handled and resolved. It would help build a more accurate and evidence-based picture of where pressure points exist in the system. It would also help tenants and policymakers understand how rent issues are being addressed in practice.

In short, this amendment would help foster a culture of fairness, responsiveness and trust. These qualities are essential if we are to improve standards across this sector, and I hope the Minister will look favourably on it.

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However, we know that there may be gaps in coverage, so we are undertaking technical exploration with relevant partners to understand how we might address this. We need to complete this research to ensure that UPRNs can be used effectively within the database. We also do not think it would be right to put this requirement in the Bill until we are certain of the efficacy of UPRNs within the database. Given that we need to test the suitability of using UPRNs within the database, I ask that the noble Lord does not press these amendments.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have participated in this debate— mostly agreeing with the amendments, sometimes quite enthusiastically.

One thing we have perhaps not covered before is the providers of gas and safety certificates and electrical safety checks being the people who upload that information on to the database, rather than putting the onus entirely on the landlords. This sounds rather radical, but it is in fact quite an important piece of the jigsaw. We do this with our MOTs: it is the MOT provider who has looked after the car who sends the information to the DVLA; you can record this pretty much instantly, without a lot of hassle. This also already happens with energy performance certificates: it is the provider of the certificate who uploads it on to the database. So this is not a huge jump.

I was encouraged by the Minister’s comments, for which I express appreciation. Basically, we are all on side, and things will be added to the list of contents that are included in this, but I get the unfortunate feeling that we are going to take this at a rather gentle pace. We have to wait for the secondary legislation, extensive testing and trials, bringing forward each piece one step at a time. This may be sensible, but it will be quite frustrating, given that there is such potential. There is an opportunity here for the database to make a real difference.

I thank all participants, and the Minister in particular, but I urge that we press on with this as soon as possible, because it is a really valuable tool and will make a big difference. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 221 withdrawn.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 14th May 2025 Lords Chamber

In closing, I thank the Minister for the opportunity that she provided to discuss this amendment with her and her team. However, having discussed this in detail with tenant groups, I do not share what I think is her view, based on her own very successful local authority experience, that this is not a significant problem and that the current system is effective. Tenant group representations suggest the acute need for this amendment, and I hope that the Minister will reconsider and accept this amendment or perhaps bring forward a suitable government amendment in its place. If she would find it helpful before Report, would she perhaps meet these groups—we have already secured a meeting, I believe, during the contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy—to clarify this specific amendment? I beg to move.

[Lord Best (CB)]

I shall confine myself to two sentences, because the exposition from my noble friend covered the ground so admirably. I can only imagine the nightmarish, Kafkaesque scene whereby a family is being turned out of their home and call the police, who, if an officer turns out at all, take the side of the landlord, who is committing a criminal offence. What seems badly needed is the clear statutory guidance proposed by this amendment, coupled with the instruction that prevention of cruel and illegal evictions by landlords has to be grounds for both co-ordination and intervention by the relevant police force and the local housing authority working together. I support this amendment.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

I want to scratch lots of bits out, since the noble Lord, Lord Best, was so succinct.

Amendment 258 is in the name of Lord Cromwell and has notable signatories, and the noble Lord sold this amendment well. In short, this is an amendment that should not be needed, if the police and local authorities did their jobs correctly, as per the law, as outlined in the Protection from Eviction Act. This amendment is rightly seeking to reinforce what should be happening but we know is not. The already mentioned organisation, Safer Renting, monitored data from its clients over a given period, which revealed that, when the clients were going through an illegal eviction, and while it was in progress they called the police for assistance, worryingly in only 9% of cases did the police actually go to the property and assist the tenants. Therefore, as the noble Lord said, in 91% of cases they either failed to turn up, or turned up and sided with the landlord.

Interestingly, so concerned was Safer Renting about these statistics that it decided to do something about it. To its credit, in partnership with the Metropolitan Police and the GLA, it developed a training course for officers. Approximately 8,000 officers took the training but, sadly, this did not mean it recorded any significant improvement when talking to its clients, which begs a lot more questions that are probably not answerable here.

As has already been said by several noble Lords, it is imperative that the police understand the harassment before and during an illegal eviction—or, indeed, what constitutes criminal offences—and, most importantly, that they co-operate with the local authorities charged with the role of prosecuting these rogues and criminal landlords. Shockingly, that is not always happening. Safer Rentings’ illegal eviction count for England and Wales in 2022-23 showed 8,748 illegal evictions—that is one every 67 minutes.

It is not necessary for the police to prosecute these offences unless they witness criminal actions taking place alongside the eviction, but it is crucial for them to understand the law both to refer them to the local authority and to co-operate with the authority’s investigations. We support this amendment, but we hope the Minister will reassure us that it is not needed.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 1st July 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Best]

25: Clause 6, page 8, line 18, at end insert—
“(4F) It shall be an implied term of every assured tenancy to which this section applies that for a period of four years from the commencement of the tenancy the percentage increase between the existing rent and any new rent specified in a notice given under subsection (2) must not exceed whichever is the lesser of—(a) the percentage of the rate of inflation calculated by reference to the consumer price index since the date on which the existing rent took effect, or (b) the percentage increase in median national earnings calculated over a three-year period by the UK Statistics Authority, ending on the date on which the notice was served.”Member’s explanatory statement
This amendment provides for in-tenancy rent increases to be index-linked on the basis of CPI or increases in national annual earnings. This seeks to avoid the uncertainties for a period of up to four years of rents being determined at unknown – and potentially unaffordable – market levels.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, in moving Amendment 25 in my name and those of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, I will also speak to my related Amendments 26 to 28. I declare my interests as a vice-president of the Local Government Association, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Town and Country Planning Association, and a past chair of the Affordable Housing Commission. My wife owns rented property in Dorset.

I fear the Bill still contains a fundamental flaw in its provisions for rent increases. Quite properly, the Bill seeks to ensure that tenants are not subject to huge rent rises, which can have the effect, as the Renters’ Reform Coalition and Shelter have made so clear, of evicting them from the property. But the Bill’s way of solving this problem creates considerable hazards for tenants and landlords alike.

To prevent exorbitant rent increases, the Bill relies on the renter taking their case to the First-tier Tribunal, which will determine a market rent that cannot be exceeded. That arrangement is fraught with difficulty. The first problem with a system dependent on a tribunal’s judgment is that deciding on a market rent is not a science. The outcome of tribunal hearings can be unpredictable and sometimes appear arbitrary. The second drawback is that renters must take on a daunting task. They are likely to fall out with their landlord, on whom they depend for continuing service, and to appear in person they may need to give up a day’s work, incur travel expenses and experience a troublesome and intimidating process. Thirdly, the tribunal’s decision on what is the market rent may still involve a big rent hike, well ahead of rises in incomes, and can thereby present an impossible affordability obstacle for the tenant, which is the very problem the process was intended to avoid.

From the perspective of the landlord, many of your Lordships have been concerned that the tribunal will get clogged up with thousands of time-consuming appeals. I was pleased to hear that the Minister is looking at an amendment to make use of the Valuation Office Agency to weed out appeals that are likely to fail. She is also introducing an amendment that reduces incentives for renters to appeal by enabling the Secretary of State to allow at a later date a backdating of the rent increase that is determined by the tribunal. By making the appeal process more risky, this new measure could deter renters who have a good case for pursuing an appeal. In any case, it is a fallback, a long-stop that might not be introduced for some time, if at all.

More helpfully, Amendments 25 to 27 would provide clarity and security for the renter and the landlord and give confidence to responsible investors. The amendments would mean rent increases being capped on an indexed basis using either CPI or the rise in earnings averaged over the previous three years. The indexation would be limited to three annual increases, after which the landlord could charge a market rent, if necessary determined by using the process of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. This model surely represents a fair solution to the need for moderation of rent increases without reliance on appeals to the FTT and all the problems that brings.

In returning to this matter on Report, I have added the new Amendment 28, which addresses a criticism of the indexation approach. This amendment tackles the valid objection that there may be exceptional circumstances in which an indexed increase would not be fair to the landlord; for example, the landlord may have spent substantial funds to improve the property which could justify a rent increase that contributes towards the cost. The new amendment enables the landlord—not the tenant—to ask the tribunal to approve the setting of a rent in excess of the otherwise automatic indexation.

The amendments cut out the need for renters to take matters to the tribunal and therefore to enter into a battle with their landlord. Most tenancies do not last more than four years, so for most tenants, the arrangement would mean the certainty of indexation of rent increases, whereas the fickle market might have meant much greater rent increases. I believe this is a far better way of limiting increases than currently in the Bill. It cannot be described as rent control. It is time limited—and not comparable with failed rent control measures in other countries. It is fair to landlords and entirely preferable to the hassle and uncertainties of them being taken to the tribunal. It avoids the clogging-up problem that may mean that the tribunal system is going to be overwhelmed. Here is a package that has real benefit for landlord and tenant alike. With thanks to my co-sponsors, I beg to move.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, I have added my name to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best. I will add a brief footnote to what he has just said. As we heard in the last debate, there has been considerable concern about the capacity of the courts to handle the volume of appeals that will go to the tribunals when the Bill becomes an Act. The backlog has been going up: in the first quarter of 2025, the average time between a landlord submitting a claim and getting possession was over seven months—32.5 weeks, up from 29.8 weeks a year ago.

The Minister uses a different figure—eight weeks—but that covers only getting a possession order, not actually getting the property back. In an earlier debate, the Minister implied that it was actually quite difficult for a tenant to challenge an increase in rent. I respectfully disagree with that. There is a whole range of organisations that will give tenants advice on how to challenge an increase from the landlord.

This Government have made it clear that, unlike the previous Administration, they are not prepared to wait until the necessary reforms to the court processes are in place before they activate the Bill. That is a decision they are perfectly entitled to take, and it will be welcomed by tenants. However, a necessary corollary of that decision should be a process to minimise the chance of the courts being overwhelmed, which would be in the interest of neither tenant nor landlord. That is what Amendment 25 does.

The likelihood of the rent—a market rent when it was fixed—diverging significantly from CPI or RPI over four years is quite small. The certainty that goes with that guarantee will be welcomed, I think, by both tenant and landlord. If, after four years, there is a divergence, as the noble Lord, Lord Best, has explained, the rent can then catch up. As someone who voted for the Housing Act 1988, which abolished rent control, I see no problem with this measure to simply smooth increases over a four-year period. Again, speaking personally, if at the end of the four or five years the courts have shown themselves to be up to speed, with no backlog, I would be happy to see this provision lapse, but in the meantime, I hope the Government will smile on it.

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Therefore, while I wholeheartedly share the noble Baroness’s determination to review how this legislation is working and support the struggling tenants whom we are all concerned about, I do not believe a separate review of rent affordability, mandated by law, is necessary or proportionate, and I ask her not to press her amendment.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I am very grateful to noble Lords for their support for my set of amendments, including the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, who made the point that the First-tier Tribunal already faces a backlog and there is the danger that it will get a lot worse in the future. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, for his inside knowledge that, in the business world, indexation is relatively common as a way of stabilising increases over time. Of course, the market rate may go down when it resumes, in comparison with what has happened on an index basis, so rents could go down at the end of a four-year period.

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, who made the point that renters will still be exposed, after this Bill is passed, to much greater insecurity and uncertainty from potential rent increases. We are seeing increases at the moment of 14%, which is miles above inflation. This is very unsettling for tenants and the stability of an index system would be infinitely preferable. I support the noble Baroness’s own Amendment 114, which proposes a government commission on affordable housing. This would match the voluntary sector-supported commission, which I had the honour of chairing a couple of years ago, ready for review. That was supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, who pointed out how housing costs increase almost exponentially the number of children and families in poverty—it is housing costs “wot done it” very often, by creating poverty.

The noble Lord, Lord Fuller, is yet to be convinced of the merits of my case. It is true that there could be complications, but any other system is more complicated and difficult than the one that we propose. I am sad to say that the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, compared this to rent control—“Oh, not again!” We thought we were at pains to point out that something that hits the market level on a regular basis cannot be called rent control—it is not control of the marketplace—but I thank him for his contribution.

I am afraid I have not convinced the Minister, despite her great generosity in having meetings outside the Chamber. I am grateful to her for listening attentively to the case I make. It has not been sufficient to win her over. I can only say that there is now, on the record, an alternative to the Bill’s formula, and if that proves as unsatisfactory as I suspect it will be, maybe this amendment’s time will come. In the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 25 withdrawn.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 7th July 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Best]

74: Schedule 2, page 207, line 13, at end insert—
“Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008
69A In Schedule 3 to the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 (enactments specified for the purposes of Part 1), in the appropriate place, insert—“Tenant Fees Act 2019 (c.4)””Member’s explanatory statement
This amendment integrates the Tenant Fees Act 2019 into Schedule 3 to the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. It enables a Primary Authority to support local authorities to give assured advice to lettings agents on achieving compliance under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. It is intended that providing this advice will support lettings businesses and reduce pressure on local authorities' enforcement teams.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 74, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, and, to my delight, the Minister, have added their names. I declare my interests as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Trading standards officers are going to be important in the enforcement of key provisions in this Bill, and Amendment 74 is intended to support their work.

I brought forward this amendment in Committee, and it is intended to extend the matters covered by the special primary authority scheme. This scheme enables certain local authorities to provide assured advice that property agents can rely on in seeking to fulfil their obligations. With this amendment, letting agents and those that advise them, such as Propertymark and the Property Ombudsman, would be able to obtain clear guidance on their responsibilities in meeting regulatory requirements under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, an important piece of legislation that has been left out of this advisory scheme to date. This amendment will help trading standards officers ensure compliance and is beneficial to all property agents wanting to do the right thing.

The amendment was promoted by the senior manager of the National Trading Standards estate agency team, James Munro, to whom I offer many thanks. I also thank noble Lords on the Opposition Benches for supporting this amendment in Committee. I am very pleased that the Government have also decided to back it, and I am grateful to the Minister for adding her name to it. It may not be the most exciting measure before us, but it represents a most welcome addition to the Bill and will reduce pressure on overburdened local authority enforcement teams. I beg to move.

[Baroness Grender (LD)]

My Lords, I rise to support Amendment 74 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Best, noting that it is signed by my noble friend Lady Thornhill. This is a characteristic amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Best, who has become the technical amendment expert when it comes to housing, capable of spotting small but significant changes that can genuinely make a difference. We are delighted that the Minister has also signed the amendment.

We have long supported efforts to raise standards and professionalism among managing and property agents. We fully agree with the findings and recommendations of the 2019 report, Regulation of Property Agents, chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Best. Is it really six years since its publication on the 18th of this month? How many of its recommendations have been implemented? Perhaps the Minister can tell us or the noble Lord in his summating. The noble Lord’s amendment goes some way to helping local authority trading standards officers work more effectively with good agents who want to raise standards for all and weed out the bad guys, knowing that the assured advice they receive will be clear and comprehensive in ensuring compliance in meeting their obligations under the Tenant Fees Act. I look forward to hearing from the Minister.

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[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I hope that the next day of Report will go just like that. It will be wonderful.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Best, for Amendment 74. As he noted, I have added my name to it, and I am delighted to do so. The Government are very pleased to support the amendment, technical as it is. As the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, said, it will make a positive difference. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Best, for bringing this forward. The amendment is a positive step towards creating a fair and transparent rental market with a more streamlined regulatory process. We want to ensure that letting agent businesses are able to receive reliable and tailored advice on complying with regulations under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.

The amendment will allow a primary authority scheme to be set up for the Tenant Fees Act 2019. The reliable and tailored assured advice issued by the primary authority is recognised by other local authorities. This helps businesses avoid costs and difficulties caused by different local authorities interpreting and enforcing the same rules inconsistently. The primary authority scheme also promotes great co-operation between businesses and regulators, fostering a collaborative environment that ultimately increases compliance rates while lowering enforcement costs and reducing administrative burdens. The Government strongly support the amendment, recognising its potential significantly to improve the rental market. I hope the whole House will support it.

[Lord Best (CB)]

I am delighted to receive support from all around the House and am deeply grateful. The commonhold and leasehold reform Bill is on its way shortly. That will provide further opportunities to strengthen the regulatory framework around managing agents and the work they do.

Amendment 74 agreed.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 15th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hogan-Howe (CB)]

My Lords, I support the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, to which I added my name. Sadly, he is right: the police do not have sufficient knowledge about the law changes, which are now quite old. I suspect the reason is that the complaints tend to be infrequent, but of course it can be a Catch-22 because, if people do not think that their complaints will be listened to, they do not tend to make them. But, in the process, that means that the police have probably not kept pace with the law as it has changed, and with the needs of complainants.

Traditionally, the police did get involved, even in civil disputes, usually to prevent a breach of the peace, because people were worried there would be violence. Sometimes, a tenant might have access to a firearm, so there would be pre-work to make sure that that was removed from the scene so things could not get more serious.

This seems a reasonable step. I could not necessarily give the amendment that level of support in Committee because I thought there was a danger that it was directing the police to do certain things. All this tries to do is establish the level of the problem and what can be done about it so that the police perform their duty. The risk is that, at the moment, they are not.

Obviously, the amendment may or may not be accepted, but there are some fairly straightforward ways in which it could be helped. The Chief Inspector of Constabulary goes around and inspects every force every year and, if it were put on the list of things to look at, that would certainly make the police think about it. Tenants having a single point of contact within a force would mean that at least one person—or two or three people, or a department—could provide this knowledge and expertise for the officers on the street. That would be helpful. Carrying on as we are is not fair on the tenants, and it is not proper if Parliament has decided that this is a criminal act and the police have a role to play. So I support this amendment; it is a reasonable step. If the Government do not accept it, they might want to make it clear how they will address the gap.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I will briefly support Amendment 110 in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Cromwell and Lord Hogan-Howe. I am grateful to Safer Renting, ACORN and the Renters’ Reform Coalition for bringing this matter to our attention. My noble friends have noted that this is a milder and more focused version of the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, debated in Committee, calling only for a review of the legislation that covers the duties of the police in respect of illegal evictions.

Although the amendment places a very modest obligation on the Government—namely, simply to publish a report on the position—this would be a good first step toward addressing a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs. It is clear that the laws against illegal and sometimes violent evictions are not being enforced. I see from the statistics that there were over 16,000 illegal evictions in 2022-23, and the police did not act in over 90% of cases. The underlying problem is surely not because of any malice on the part of the police officers but because of ignorance of what should be done and of the priority this should receive. The report that this amendment would elicit would clarify matters and make the recommendations that are needed to end wrongful and criminal practices by the very worst landlords. I am delighted to support the amendment.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, Amendments 87, 88 and 104, as we have heard, seek to raise the burden of proof to that of the criminal standard, “beyond reasonable doubt”, from the civil standard, “on the balance of probabilities”, consistently across the Bill. All the amendments in the next group, on financial penalties, seek to lower the amount of money an enforcing council can fine a landlord. This group and the next are, to me, heads and tails of the same coin. Seen together, both sets of amendments seek to considerably help landlords by raising the standard of proof for an offence and lowering the fine if they are in breach of it. We believe that it is a naked attempt to tilt the balance massively in favour of landlords in a dispute, when the power balance is already heavily in their favour, and to deter tenants from complaining and taking action.

We do not agree with anything that undermines two of the core principles of the Bill. The first is to act as a deterrent to bad landlords. We on these Benches keep saying, as does the Minister, that good landlords have nothing to fear from the Bill, and certainly not from this aspect, but the fines have to be tough enough and the burden of proof appropriate to a civil offence. The second is to increase penalties to bring them in line with similar penalties that can be issued already by enforcement authorities against landlords who breach legislation.

I want to look specifically at the amendments. I think that the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Keen, with their forensic legal eyes, are looking at them in a particular way. I look at the unintended consequences for tenants. Amendment 87, on raising the burden of proof, relates to families claiming benefits. Refusing to rent to someone due to their claiming benefits is unlawful. However, with high demand, this form of discrimination is really hard to prove. It is often based on verbal rather than written evidence. This amendment would therefore make it significantly more difficult for recipients of benefits to hold their landlord to account for this discriminatory practice.

Similarly, Amendment 88 relates to bidding wars. It is absolutely right that the Bill will ban bidding wars. Too often, renters are pitted against each other for a home, driving up the cost of renting in the process. It is already very hard to prove, without making it even harder by raising the burden of proof. Raising that standard of proof would make it significantly more difficult for a local authority to enforce the ban on bidding wars, especially due to the nature of the evidence in such cases.

Amendment 103 relates to the database that the Bill will set up. Noble Lords will know from Committee that I am a database believer. However, without the right data and information, such a database risks losing its utility for all tenants, prospective tenants and local authorities. This amendment would provide landlords with a lovely loophole that they could potentially exploit. It would be very difficult to prove that the landlord had knowledge of the breach they committed, and the amendment would therefore allow landlords to contravene the new regulations without fear of enforcement. I acknowledge the complexity of this amendment and look forward to the Minister’s response. To us, all these amendments seek to undermine the protections for tenants, thus we are very much against them.

Let us now be positive, by turning to Amendment 104, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy. She has explained the situation very clearly and we support her fully. This is a really positive move. Amendment 104 would reduce the burden of proof for a rent repayment order where an illegal eviction has taken place on the balance of probabilities—hence the connection to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell. This is important, as “beyond reasonable doubt” is the criminal standard. It is just too hard at the moment for tenants to successfully get justice. Cases involving illegal evictions and harassment are typically really hard to prove to this standard; in far too many cases, where evidence is based on the word of the applicant, it is practically impossible.

A rent repayment order is not a criminal prosecution. Cases are settled in the First-tier Tribunal; there is no jury and it does not follow criminal procedural rules. There is no criminal sentence or criminal record for the respondent. There is no legal aid available for rent repayment order claims and thus applicants are often self-represented, with little help and no legal expertise. This is again why the higher criminal burden of proof is so inappropriate for this kind of action. It is virtually a non-action, as evidenced by the low numbers of rent repayment orders that are brought.

We need to consider the very serious possibility that, with the abolition of Section 21, there will be more illegal evictions. It is therefore important that a bigger deterrent is in place. This needs to be changed to “on the balance of probabilities”. It is really important not to confuse criminal and civil offences and their parallel burdens of proof.

This takes us neatly to Amendment 110, in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Cromwell, Lord Hogan-Howe and Lord Best—a formidable trio. I can tell the Minister that it will take a lot of political will to withstand their arguments. Amendment 110 clearly gets our support, should the noble Lords wish to test the opinion of the House.

We know from all the arguments in Committee that less than 1% of illegal evictions are successfully prosecuted and that a major part of the problem is exactly as has been enunciated: the police view these things as a civil matter or, even worse, assist the landlord, even though it is a criminal matter under the Protection from Eviction Act, or they refuse to get involved at all. I cannot think of anything worse than being illegally evicted from what I believe to be my home, with my goods and my family. There has to be a greater awareness and more training, which is the aim of the amendment. As this view seems to be shared by many important bodies, it has real credibility.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Jamieson (Con)]

My Lords, Amendment 91 would require a residential landlord to be a member of the landlord redress scheme only if their tenant does not already have access to redress through a letting agent who is a member of another approved independent scheme. The purpose of this amendment is to avoid duplication, prevent unnecessary regulatory burden, and ensure that the system remains proportionate and clear. Clarity and efficiency in regulation are not just desirable, they are essential for both compliance and effective enforcement.

In Committee, the Minister said:

“We take seriously the noble Baroness’s concerns about duplication. Careful consideration will be given, during the implementation process, as to how the PRS landlord ombudsman service will interact with the agent redress provision”.—[Official Report, 14/5/25; col. 2211.]


We fully agree that tenants should have a clear and accessible route to redress, but that route must be simple, coherent and proportionate. A system that is overly complicated by parallel and potentially overlapping redress obligations could hinder rather than help. For example, if a landlord were a member of two redress schemes, which one should the tenant apply to—or both? How would liability be determined and does this not risk delay and confusion as lawyers from both redress schemes seek to argue it out?

This amendment seeks not to water down tenants’ rights but to ensure that those rights are delivered through a streamlined, efficient system that works in practice for tenants, landlords and agents alike. Clarity here is important. I hope that the Minister agrees. I beg to move.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I will comment on Amendment 91 in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson. Their amendment would exempt a landlord from joining the new redress/ombudsman scheme if that landlord’s property is managed by an agent who is already a member of one of the existing redress/ombudsman schemes. I declare a past interest as chair for eight years of the Property Ombudsman, which handles complaints about agents. This amendment’s intention of avoiding duplication of membership of redress/ombudsman schemes is entirely right, otherwise the tenant is left puzzling over which ombudsman—their landlord’s or the agent’s—they should address their complaint to.

However, this amendment would not achieve the desired result. I know, from having had some responsibilities for redress in respect of managing/lettings agents, that the response from the agent to a complaint by a renter is often, “I was only doing what the landlord told me to do”. The agent may be justified in this: a renter may have requested an urgent repair and the agent did nothing, but the problem has been the landlord telling the agent that the cost is too high or the work is not needed. The intolerable delay is not the result of the agent’s negligence; it is the landlord who has held things up. These cases cannot be resolved because the landlord is not a member of any redress scheme, and that problem would persist if the landlord was exempted from having to join the new redress/ombudsman scheme.

To avoid duplication of having one redress/ombudsman scheme for landlords and one for property agents, I suggest the solution is for a single redress/ombudsman service for both. This would avoid complaints resolution being stymied and tenants being sent from pillar to post where two different ombudsman services are involved with one issue. I know the Government are still considering how best to introduce the new redress scheme for landlords in this Bill, and I recommend one port of call for tenants with a complaint. The position is already confusing, with the Housing Ombudsman providing a redress service for a few private landlords— as well as for all social landlords—and the Property Ombudsman and the separate Property Redress Scheme both providing redress schemes for property agents. Bringing in the new mandatory redress scheme for complaints about private landlords will add to the confusion for the consumer and the renter. This is a good moment to rationalise and consolidate the arrangements, but not by excluding the landlords who use an agent, which would not solve the problem.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Best. In fact, one of my lines says that there should be only one port of call. If one of the main planks of the Bill is to drive up standards, it is critical that landlords are mandated to be part of the ombudsman scheme. It should be a catch-all. Unfortunately, this amendment would allow landlords to opt out of the government redress scheme and, as has been explained, deny tenants access to redress via the national private sector ombudsman that the Bill intends to set up.

To make this advantageous move, all landlords would need to do is use a letting agent that is signed up to one of these alternative schemes. This would create a significant loophole in the legislation and deny such tenants access to redress for issues that lie solely with the landlord and not the managing agent, such as damp and mould caused by structural issues. Generation Rent’s polling found that one in three tenants has had maintenance issues in their home that they have reported but the landlord has not dealt with. This is quite a widespread problem. If we want to drive up standards, we want to make it easier for tenants to complain and landlords to comply.

In addition, if this amendment were to pass it would create more confusion, as there are currently multiple independent letting agent schemes that compete with each other, arguably creating a race to the bottom on standards. This phenomenon arguably exists to some extent with deposit protection schemes—which, incidentally, are also chosen by landlords or agents, not by renters, so the landlord will choose the one that thinks like they do or favours the way they work.

The system as proposed in the Bill seems to be the correct way forward, as making membership of an ombudsman scheme mandatory for landlords who use managing agents will mitigate a situation where a good agent—and there are good agents—tries to remedy a complaint but is reliant on an overseas landlord who refuses to engage. As well as these advantages, one ombudsman can tackle the root cause of problems, address systemic issues, provide feedback and education to all interested parties, and offer support to vulnerable consumers. Amendment 91 would dilute all these potential good impacts of the new ombudsman, reducing tenants’ ability to hold bad landlord practice and behaviour to account. I cannot think why anybody would want to do that.

Renters’ Rights Bill

Lord Best Excerpts

Consideration of Commons amendments and / or reasons
Tuesday 14th October 2025 Lords Chamber

Finally, Amendment 19C includes a power to end the exemption in the future; for example, once the building safety programme has been completed. However, the amendment does not put a date on this to ensure that the exemption remains in place for as long as necessary. I hope that, when the time comes, the House will agree to this Motion.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, on the compromise he has achieved on this important amendment. I must declare a family interest: my wife owns rented property in Dorset. I shall speak in opposition to the amendment to Motion C in the name of my noble friend Lord Cromwell, well-intentioned though I believe it is.

My noble friend’s amendment would mean that a landlord who had gained possession of a property using the grounds of an intention to sell would be able to relet that property after six months if it had not been sold, rather than having to wait up to a year, as specified in the Bill. In normal circumstances, one would expect a sale to be agreed within around six months, or, if not, the landlord would still want to go for a sale rather than relet the property, so the issue would not arise in most instances where this ground for possession could be used. However, the Government want to prevent an unscrupulous minority of landlords using these grounds for eviction as a way of bypassing the Bill’s fundamental intention of giving renters greater security. The fear is that the landlord will profess to want to sell but has no such intention; they simply want to evict the tenant. They may want to switch to more profitable Airbnb-style lettings, or they may want to replace a tenant who is complaining about the landlord’s neglect of essential repairs and find a more malleable or more desperate tenant.

There is some evidence of such cheating behaviour from Scotland, where similar legislation has not had constraints on how quickly a vacated property can be relet, so the Government want to prevent abuses. The Bill needs to ban reletting for long enough to deter a landlord from misusing these grounds for possession. The question is how long a pause before re-letting is permitted would be long enough. Let us take a case where a renter is complaining about damp and mould. The property needs, say, £15,000 to be spent on rectifying various defects. If the tenant is paying £900 a month, it would be advantageous for the landlord to go without six months’ rent, that is £5,300, to be rid of that tenant and find someone who will tolerate the poor conditions. Having to forego 12 months’ rent before reletting, well over £10,000 in this case, would present a more robust deterrent against using this no-fault eviction route to removing the tenant.

I can see that a compromise of a nine-month ban on reletting would probably be acceptable all round, but in the absence of that halfway house, it is safer and more foolproof to stay with the Bill’s 12-month term and reject this amendment.

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, first, I join the noble Lord, Lord Best, in praising the noble Lord, Lord Young, for his tenacity and commitment to shared ownership owners, who really are the raw end of the market and get a raw deal in many ways. He has really shown his mettle in his commitment to this. It is also fair to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, for listening and doing something about it. I hope that her commitment to shared owners continues in other areas that we will look at.

Turning to Motion C1, from the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, which it appears we will vote on, it is very difficult to follow the eloquence of the noble Lords, Lord Pannick and Lord Cromwell, but I will try. The noble Lord, Lord Best, has already highlighted what we call “revenge evictions”, and we are approaching that issue from the position of working—for many years, in the case of my noble friend Lady Grender—with renter groups and renter charities. From that, we get a real idea of what is happening at the sharp end, which is not quite as narrow as we might like to think it is. There are probably more unscrupulous landlords out there than the number of homes that take over one year to sell.

On revenge evictions, there is the risk that a tenant will be kicked out because they ask for improvements—the noble Lord gave a very good example of that, but there are many others. In certain parts of the country where rents are not as expensive, six months’ rent would make it worth while for the landlord to kick somebody out on that ground if they ask for even some modest accessibility improvements and so on. We are arguing over six, nine or 12 months, and the truth is that only time will tell. What I seek from the Government is some reassurance that this will be looked at, because that could very well be the case.

The noble Lord, Lord Best, mentioned Scotland. It is interesting that the properties in one in five evictions that were made on this repossession ground then turned up on their database as still being for sale. That gives weight to the fact that people are prepared to do it, because in Scotland they have no period for not re-letting.

In several debates, I mentioned that I chatted to my women friends who are landlords; I referred to them as my “landladies”. I put this to them, and they looked at me as if it were a weird question. They said, “If I were concerned about my property sitting empty, I am actually able to sell my property with the tenants still in the property while the ‘For Sale’ board is up on the door, so I would talk to them and say that the ‘For Sale’ board is going up, but I certainly wouldn’t be serving notice until I was certain that I had a buyer”. That is due to—this is a statistic that has not been bandied about—the length of time it sometimes takes to sell a house. Interestingly, they did not see it as the kind of emotive, big, terrible, unfair problem that noble Lords have made it out to be. By keeping your tenants in the property, you are not only getting the rent but—much more importantly, in our view—you are giving your tenants more time to find a home.