The government is widely expected to announce that Section 21 eviction powers will be scrapped in new legislation coming to Parliament later this year.
After months of speculation and exhaustive lobbying by activists in pressure groups such as Generation Rent and the campaigning charity Shelter, the announcement is likely to be in the Queen’s Speech today.
The Financial Times, quoting unnamed sources, says the pledge will definitely be made alongside a promise to introduce a Renters Reform Bill.
The FT says: “Rather than a standalone renters’ bill, officials hope the legislation will be included in a broader ‘levelling-up bill’ being put forward by Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.”
The FT continues: “In [2019] ministers launched a consultation into repealing Section 21 of the housing act, but its suspension has been pushed back several times. The move comes at a time when the cost of living crisis and rising rents have put financial pressure on tenants after the withdrawal of government support for employees and renters during the pandemic, which has left many more exposed. According to property portal Rightmove, the average asking price for rents in London increased 14 per cent in the year to April, and more than 10 per cent in the rest of England.”
The Queen’s Speech will announce about 20 pieces of legislation including an economic crime bill, financial services bill and a media bill.
However the FT says some proposed reforms have been dropped, including a bill to change audit and corporate governance rules, and a competition bill to give statutory powers to the fledgling digital markets unit for devising codes of conduct for tech companies.
/HousesofParliament-3-400x310.jpg)
%20-%20IMAGE%20Client%20Accounting%20%E2%80%93%20what%20are%20your%20options.jpg)
%20(002).png)
.png)
.png)
%20(002).jpg)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
And so the supply drops more and rents rise .. everything this government does to appease tenants backfires on them .. shame they can’t see it and look for little victories
Great....My rent goes up.
Fabulous stuff.
Higher rents, more landlords selling up. What a way to help tenants. Well done, Boris, another failure to add to your list.
Does anyone have any actual knowledge of how the new legislation will look apart from the 'eviction' headlines? There will still have to be some rights for a landlord to remove tenants to let's say 'exercise their rights of ownership of the asset'. I'm just retiring and have a couple of properties that I've rented for years and kept as a key part of my retirement planning. Is this really saying my future is at the mercy of whether a tenant will 'choose' to leave at a point in time that allows me to finance my retirement to the extent I planned for? If there are no such safeguards it will be Section 21 for both asap.
Not even Boris knows. As far as he is concerned it sounds goods and may get him the odd tenant vote.
I guess it will be ages before this is developed into a plan (I almost wrote 'coherent plan' there before realising who we are dealing with) and take even more time to get through the legislative process so we will be able to see what is really being considered but my thinking remains the same. If our rights to deal with our legally owned assets as we see fit aren't protected then I don't see any options but to get out of the market.
Please login to comment