Rayner’s Section 21 Reform must not kill private re...

Propertymark has fired a broadside at Labour saying it must provide agents with a proper court system to handle evictions.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner - who is also shadow housing secretary - has told her party conference in Liverpool that if she came to office she would push through the ban on Section 21 evictions.

This is also a key feature of the Conservatives’ Renters Reform Bill.

A statement by Propertymark says: “Although there is now a clear consensus across the political spectrum for the abolition of no-fault evictions, policymakers must recognise that letting agents and landlords need confidence in the capacity of the court system to deal with the changes and ensure that the revised system of grounds are robust enough to ensure landlords can get there property back when things go wrong.”

Meanwhile the National Residential Landlords Association has told Rayner to follow her own MPs l’ advice and encourage landlords to provide more privately rented properties if it wants to solve the housing crisis.

A Labour-led parliamentary select committee earlier this year said that incentivising landlords to invest in the private rental sector was one of the key ways rents could be reduced and the housing crisis eased.

Now NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “Private rented housing provides one of the best springboards into homeownership, whilst landlords are well placed to help bring the almost quarter of a million long term empty homes back into use.

“Scrapping the stamp duty levy on homes to rent would see 900,000 new private rented homes made available across the UK.

“This would lead to an additional £10 billion in revenue as a result of increases in income and corporation tax receipts.

“The Party should accept the recommendations of the Labour-led Housing Select Committee to reform the tax system to support the provision of more homes to rent.”