The Renters’ Rights Bill – House of Lords Committee Stage – Summary of Day 1
Yesterday was the first of four days of Committee Stage debate about the Renters’ Rights Bill (the Bill) in the House of Lords. This stage involves detailed examination of the draft legislation by any peer who wishes to take part.
Whilst amendments are tabled and debated at this stage, it is rare for them to actually be voted on; that usually happens at the Report Stage. That said, some of over 300 amendments due to be discussed over the coming days were withdrawn yesterday evening following some lively, pertinent debate.
We’ve drawn out some key discussion points and choice quotes from the first session.
Conservative peers voicing concern about the form of the Bill
As had been anticipated, Conservative peers voiced strong opposition to the Bill in its current form, with Baroness Scott of Bybrook speaking first to introduce a “purpose” clause, seeking to place a statutory duty for Ministers to have regard to the purpose of the Bill (which was namely, she said, to improve the ability of renters to obtain secure, fairly priced and decent quality housing) when exercising powers under the new legislation. Baroness Scott voiced concern that:
“Rather than making houses more affordable, this legislation risks increasing burdens on landlords, discouraging them from remaining in the rental market and ultimately reducing supply at a time of rapidly growing demand. In economic terms, this can only mean one thing: higher housing costs for renters.”
In his retort, Lord Shipley, a Liberal Democrat, presumed that the Opposition would withdraw another proposed amendment that would allow landlords with fewer than five properties to continue to use the Section 21 process, in the light of a duty to abide by a secure, quality housing purpose.
Although Clause 2, which abolishes the Section 21 procedure, was eventually agreed yesterday, Lord Jamieson questioned how wise this ‘nuclear option’ was arguing that, “the short-term rental market supports job mobility, especially industries which require relocation or even temporary positions. Enabling the mobility of working-age adults to reach the depth and breadth of the United Kingdom is vital for economic growth.”
This was given short shrift by Baroness Taylor:
“We heard a bit about damascene conversions earlier, and it is deeply regrettable that we seem to have a reverse damascene conversion here, and now opposition to the abolition of Section 21. I need not remind the Opposition Benches that this policy was first proposed in 2019 and, indeed, endured through four Conservative Prime Ministers. This government will stand firm. Section 21 has loomed over tenants for far too long and we will be the ones to finally abolish it.”
Anti-social behaviour (ASB) debate
Lords of every political persuasion seemed keen to discuss how the Bill would deal with the ‘scourge’ of ASB in the rented sectors and more widely, with Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, a Labour life peer and sponsor of the Bill, wishing to make clear that tackling ASB was a top priority for the government.
She then turned to Conservative Amendment 66, which removes the Bill’s requirement for judges to give particular consideration during possession proceedings brought pursuant to Ground 14 and the tenant has engaged with attempts by the landlord to resolve the ASB. Baroness Taylor advised that the government expects landlords to try to resolve problematic behaviour before attempting to evict tenants.
Proposed six month new build exemption (withdrawn)
The Liberal Democrat Baroness Grender discussed the proposed introduction of an exemption to the Section 21 abolition, whereby ASTs would be allowed for six months after premises are constructed. She said that this would have specifically incentivised more build-to-rent accommodation by offering a degree of initial security for developers and advised that:
“We have heard directly from the British Property Federation, which is the representative body for the build-to-rent sector. It has expressed its support for measures that increase the certainty of rental income for institutional investors developing these new homes. It has engaged with us and our colleagues in the Commons on a similar amendment and explicitly stated support for its general thrust. The British Property Federation supports the new supply of rental housing and has said that six months would be an adequate period to incentivise investment in new construction and build-to-rent.
After hearing that the government agreed with the need to drive forward the increase in housing supply and was working with the build-to-rent sector to do so, but that will not support any amendment that seeks to retain Section 21 for any purpose, Baroness Grender advised that they would go back to the drawing board on this amendment because she believed that, “there must be a way to provide some kind of incentive to increase supply.”
The remaining Committee Stage dates scheduled so far are 24, 28 April and 6 May 2025 following which the Bill will move to the Report Stage and the Third Reading in the Lords for further scrutiny.
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