“While the Tories completely failed to deliver on their promises to renters and bowed to vested interests on their benches, Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill will transform the rights of renters, ending rental bidding wars and ‘no fault evictions’ for good.
“Labour is getting on with our Plan for Change, increasing living standards across the country and putting more money in working people’s pockets.”
The Renters’ Rights Bill is expected to come into force in the summer.
The bill will deliver long-promised rent reforms, including scrapping section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions that allow landlords to evict tenants without giving a reason and are considered a leading driver of homelessness.
The legislation is expected to give tenants more rights and security, including to keep a pet, and is also looking to improve the state of properties through a decent home standard and extending Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector.
The government also introduced new safeguards to protect guarantors, who are often family members, from paying rent for the rest of the tenancy when a loved one has died.
Further changes will protect students from being pressured to sign a lease for a new house more than six months in advance and strengthen rent repayment orders to allow tenants to recoup cash from rent-to-rent landlords even if the rent wasn’t directly paid to them.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook, who is leading on the legislation through the house, said: “The bill will modernise the regulation of our country’s insecure and unjust private rented sector, levelling decisively the playing field between landlord and tenant.
“It will empower renters by providing them with greater security, rights and protections so they can stay in their homes for longer, build lives in their communities and avoid the risk of homelessness.”
The previous Conservative government failed to pass its Renters Reform Bill – despite a promise to scrap no-fault evictions appearing in the party’s 2019 manifesto – while in power.
Labour’s bill attracted criticism from David Simmonds, Conservative shadow housing minister, who accused the government of failing to allow landlords reclaim their property effectively through the bill and locking people with a poor credit score out of the private rented sector.
Simmonds said: “While there have been very substantial areas of agreement on the bill, which does take forward work started under the previous government under the Renters Reform Bill, we do have concerns that the new bill in the version before us creates significant new concerns around the availability and affordability of accommodation in the private rented sector.”
The government also faced calls to improve how the bill tackles the affordability crisis in the private rented sector with many MPs arguing that tenants are already paying too much in rent.
Private rents are at record-highs, rising 9.1% across the UK in the year up to November 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer put forward an amendment to introduce rent controls into the Renters’ Rights Bill, arguing that “when section 21 is done away with by this bill, we need rent controls to stop rogue landlords hiking rents to kick people out as well.
Independent John McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, also urged the government to reconsider rent controls. He said: “The argument is very simple. We just want a system where rents are linked to wages or inflation that way people can’t be ripped off by higher rent.”
Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker submitted a number of amendments also calling for rent stabilisation, including a change that would limit the amount landlords can raise rents during tenancies to wage growth and the inflation rate.
Wrapping up the debate, Pennycook said he “understood their concerns about rental affordability”.
But he added that “the government sincerely believes the introduction of rent controls in the private rented sector could harm tenants as well as landlords as a result of reduced supply and encouraged investment”.
However, Denyer convince Pennycook to meet with her to discuss measures to ensure that disabled tenants are able to adapt their home to meet their needs.
Meanwhile, housing select committee chair Florence Eshalomi warned the government that tribunals to allow tenants to challenge rent increases could see low-income facing higher rents due to the reliance on market data.
Eshalomi said: “We need guarantees that the use of rent tribunals resolves this and is actually available and accessible to tenants.”
Now the bill will head to the Lords where to be scrutinised by peers.
Lord John Bird, founder of the Big Issue and a crossbench peer, will be among them.
“I welcome the progress of the Renters’ Rights Bill today and the valuable input of MPs striving to make it more robust for renters,” said Lord Bird.
“With families in expensive yet unsuitable temporary accommodation at record levels, ending the threat of section 21 evictions is crucial to stopping the mass influx of people falling into homelessness. Prevention at a time of crisis is the only answer.
“On this, there remains a sticking point – rent affordability. Landlords must not be allowed to weaponise sharp rent hikes to force vulnerable people out of their properties and into homelessness. This will be at the forefront of my mind as the bill is scrutinised in the Lords in the coming months, where I am determined to see it pass into law and bring long-promised relief to millions of renters.”
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