The Private Rental Sector has been burdened with more new pieces of legislation in the last 5 years than in the prior 15. With the impending general election on December 12th in mind, we have taken a look at each political party’s manifesto pledges with respect to the PRS and rental housing in general. It’s fair to say, looking at each party’s pledges, that this trend looks set to continue. To help you make up your own mind, we have extracted the relevant sections from each manifesto (I don’t recommend reading the whole document) that refers to the PRS;
Conservatives:
“We will bring in a Better Deal for Renters, including abolishing ‘no-fault’ evictions and only requiring one ‘lifetime’ deposit which moves with the tenant. This will create a fairer rental market: if you’re a tenant, you will be protected from revenge evictions and rogue landlords, and if you’re one of the many good landlords, we will strengthen your rights of possession.”
Labour:
“Private Renters More than 11 million people rent from a private landlord and many of them are at the sharp end of the housing crisis. We will take urgent action to protect private renters through rent controls, open-ended tenancies, and new, binding minimum standards. Labour will stop runaway rents by capping them with inflation and give cities powers to cap rents further. We will give renters the security they need to make their rented housing a home, with new open-ended tenancies to stop unfair, ‘no-fault’ evictions. We will make sure every property is up to scratch with new minimum standards, enforced through nationwide licensing and tougher sanctions for landlords who flout the rules. We will fund new renters’ unions in every part of the country – to allow renters to organise and defend their rights. 80 IT’S TIME FOR REAL CHANGE We will get rid of the discriminatory rules that require landlords to check people’s immigration status or that allow them to exclude people on housing benefit. We will give councils new powers to regulate short-term lets through companies such as Airbnb.”
Liberal Democrats:
“Help young people into the rental market by establishing a new Help to Rent scheme to provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30. Promote longer tenancies of three years or more with an inflation-linked annual rent increase built-in, to give tenants security and limit rent hikes. Improve protections against rogue landlords through mandatory licensing.”
Once the results are in, we will take a closer look at what this could mean in practical terms for Landlords.