NRLA submits written evidence to the LUHC Select Committee
NRLA policy director Chris Norris explains more about NRLA evidence to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee around the Fairer Renting White Paper.
The Government (upper-case ‘G’) may be in limbo waiting for the next PM to emerge, but the work of government (lower-case ‘g’) carries on. And so soes Parliament’s scrutiny thereof.
Consequently, the Levelling-up, Housing, and Communities (LUHC) select committee is currently holding an inquiry into the Fairer Renting White Paper, to which NRLA CEO Ben Beadle will give evidence 5th September.
For those of you not pre-occupied by the announcement of the new PM Ben’s evidence session will be streamed live here: https://committees.parliament.uk/ from around 4pm.
For those of you who simply cannot wait to find out what he will have to say, we have also provided written evidence to the committee to make sure that our points are made in their entirety.
The committee has asked witnesses to focus on the likely impact of the proposals set out in the White Paper, as well as other related recent reforms already enacted by the Government. In particular they are interested in whether they will cumulatively result in a ‘fairer’ PRS, whether they will strike the right balance between landlords’ and tenants’ interests, and whether supply will ultimately be impacted.
Committee inquiries receive a lot of written evidence, so they’re keen that witnesses stick to the point. The resulting word limits mean that we can’t necessarily say everything we’d like or provide all of the data that we may prefer, but it is still a great opportunity to influence the committee’s findings, which in turn are reported to the responsible minister(s).
This submission was heavily influenced by a large survey of more than 3,000 private landlords, who expressed a great deal of unease about the Government’s proposals. In particular those proposals to replace the s21 no-fault possession process.
This poll found that while the majority of landlords did not see the removal of s21 as fatal to their businesses, a third were extremely concerned by its impact and two thirds were doubtful that the necessary court reforms would be effective.
We provide the committee with three key recommendations:
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The replacement grounds for Section 21 for possession must be robust, comprehensive, and workable to ensure they have the confidence of landlords.
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Planned court reforms should not just be enacted but seen to be working before the Government transfers to the new system of tenancies without Section 21; and
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The Government should implement in full the recommendations of the Victims Commissioner’s report concerning anti-social behaviour.
These recommendations build on our priority concerns around the workability of the court process, the impact that these reforms will have on student landlords, and the lack of solutions offered by the Government to the problem of dealing with anti-social behaviour in our sector once the no-fault route is removed.
We have tried to be constructive in our criticism of the White Paper and offer solutions where-ever possible, and this committee appearance will be a timely opportunity for the organisation to demonstrate to the incoming housing secretary, whoever that may be, the strength of feeling amongst landlords about the proposed reforms.
