UK
Ban on no-fault evictions to be delayed as landlord MPs push back

Ruby Hinchliffe
Fri, 15 September 2023 

Conservatives hope Michael Gove’s Renters Reform Bill will be a vote winner with ‘generation renters’ - Justin Tallis/AFP

Michael Gove’s bill to protect renters is unlikely to see the light of day before the year is out, as backbench MPs continue to push against it and parliamentary sitting days become fewer and fewer.

The levelling up secretary’s team has said a “second reading will follow shortly”, and sources say the department is confident it will happen before the King’s Speech at the beginning of November.

But industry sources say Number 10 is “less confident”. One said Downing Street is concerned about the lack of available sitting days before the King’s Speech on November 7.

If the second reading does not happen before this date, then the bill will not be able to be granted royal assent. It would then be carried over into next year.

Swathes of backbench MPs are also fervently opposed to the bill. One told the Telegraph: “There’s incredible resistance from certain MPs. Until such time as everyone is assuaged, it’s not going to get very far.”

Asked how many politicians are opposed to the bill at present, the MP said the number was “huge” and has been growing since the bill was first published.

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Some 87 MPs declared income from 167 English homes earning over £10,000 in rent this year, according to research published by not-for-profit 38 Degrees earlier this year. This equates to around 20pc of Conservative MPs.

Landlords fear Gove’s bill – which promises to get rid of Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions and introduce rolling tenancies – could put too much power in the hands of non-paying tenants, leaving them at the whim of an already overburdened court system to gain back control of their properties.

The Financial Times reported that five of the 16 members in the government whips’ office, which decides what bills are tabled for further readings, own rental property.

With a general election looming next year, prime minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure to deliver on his party’s manifesto commitments – the Renters Reform Bill being one of those.

Conservatives are hoping that the legislation, which was introduced to Parliament in May, will be a Generation Rent vote-winner.

A cornerstone of the legislation is the scrapping of Section 21, or ‘no-fault’ evictions, which will make it harder for landlords to remove tenants who refuse to pay rent or trash the property.

Backbench Tory MPs fear the new laws could prompt swathes of landlords to exit the market, which they say would constrain rental housing supply and lead to a full-blown housing crisis.

The National Residential Landlords Association has called on a separate judicial court to be set up just to deal with the housing sector. But government sources say this is simply not on the cards.

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “The Government remains absolutely committed to delivering a fairer private rented sector for tenants and landlords through the Renters Reform Bill.

“The bill which delivers our manifesto commitment is progressing through parliament and second reading will follow shortly.”

Number 10 declined to comment.