Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, said the bill proposed by Labour would result in “more chaos” and argued Labour cannot fix the private rental market by “tying it in knots with further interventions and directives”.
She referred to a similar scheme in Scotland, the Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill, which she claims had decreased the supply of rental properties and increased rents faster than in England.
“I do appreciate what the government wants to do. It wants to make renting more secure and affordable,” said Badenoch, who was later named in the final two candidates to be named Conservative leader next month.
“We want to do so as well, but this bill will not achieve that. It will have the opposite effect, as we have seen in Scotland, because, as this government is going to find out over the course of this parliament, you cannot buck the market.”
Speaking in the House of Commons, Chris Curtis, Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, said he faced a no-fault eviction while campaigning for his seat.
Writing in The Guardian, he said he was subject to a 29% rent increase with two months notice in a flat he lived in for five years.
“We regularly went days without hot water when the dodgy old boiler he refused to replace broke down,” he added.
Dame Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, claimed her constituents – named Mr and Mrs S – faced a no-fault eviction and had to move out of London as a result.
She said: “They have three children, one of whom is non-verbal and has autism. On eviction from their home through section 21, they were placed 31 miles away from Merton in Windsor after they had spent eight hours in the reception of the civic centre, only to get their accommodation so late that when they turned up at Windsor, the estate agents was closed and they had nowhere to go, apart from Mr S paying £300 to be in a hotel that night.
“The next day, when they turned up at the house, there were no beds, because nobody from the local authority, any local authority checks the accommodation before the families move in.
“And don’t believe your local authority because they simply can’t do it.”
Florence Eshalomi, Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell, said the average rent in her constituency was £2,210 – just under double the average rental amount according to Shelter figures.
She said: “The reality facing so many of our private renters today is that they can be evicted with two months notice, often needing to find thousands of pounds to cover the moving costs and for a deposit.
“We’ve touched on the fact that private landlords are good. The majority of them are doing a good service … but for far too long, a minority of road landlords have been able to exploit our private tenants, using the loopholes in legislation to treat tenants in a frankly unaffordable and unacceptable way.
“This bill must put an end to that and provide tenants with the certainty and security they deserve.”
Eshalomi said a new private rented sector database, to monitor information about landlords and the details of their properties, will need strong enforcement from local authorities to tackle rogue landlords.
She said: “The large number of landlords in this country can make enforcement in the sector quite challenging, particularly when we are seeing our local councils facing their finances.
“While the introduction of the private-rented sector database will help, we will see unscrupulous landlords falling through the cracks without stringent enforcement levels, and which will fall on our councils.”
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Independent MP for Islington North, asked the deputy prime minister whether rent controls would be introduced into the bill, adding that a third of his constituents lived in private homes with rent becoming “astronomical, unaffordable, and driving working class communities out of inner city areas”.
Rayner said the Renters’ Rights Bill already takes practical measures to help renters to tackle unreasonable rent hikes and prohibits unfair rental bidding.
Carla Denyer, Green Party MP for Bristol Central, welcomed energy efficiency regulations in social and private housing by Labour, but argued it must be enshrined in the bill.
“Let’s get going, there’s no time for delay. A consultation on energy efficiency in the private rented sector was already done in 2020. Let’s not do another one, let’s just get on with it,” said Denyer.
“We need a shift on how we think about renting, moving away from viewing housing assets investments for the wealthy, to prioritising and valuing the right to a stable home in policy and practice.”
Richard Tice, MP for Boston and Skegness and Reform deputy leader, claimed the quantity of private sector properties available to rent has reduced by 50% and argued rent will rise as supply reduces.
He said: “What I would urge the government to do is to keep this under close review as this bill goes through, because if you get this balance wrong, if it’s too difficult to secure vacant possession, particularly for tenants who are involved in anti-social behaviour or not paying their rent, then the supply will reduce dramatically.”
Campaigners reacted to the bill positively.
Tom Darling, director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “It’s totally unjust that a renter can be evicted through absolutely no fault of their own and have to meet costs of more than two grand – this is just another factor in our broken renting system which contributes to homelessness and poverty.
“We welcome the government’s Renters’ Rights Bill – the end of section 21 will mean greater security for millions of renters across England. But let’s be clear: no-fault evictions will continue. That’s why we’re calling on the government to go further and protect tenants against the ‘eviction tax’ through two month’s rent as compensation.”
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