Ryan Bembridge is editor of PropertyWire
Last week saw the government again delay the release of the Renters’ Reform Bill – and I just hope this is a short-term postponement rather than anything more seismic, because the time this is taking is getting absurd.
It was 2019 when the announcement was first made, so the can keeps being kicked down the road again and again.
Clearly the bill’s measure to abolish Section 21 is controversial, but the government has had more than enough time to figure how to mitigate adverse effects – I thought having a dedicated housing ombudsman was the solution?
Of course, the big reason why it’s taken an age is the musical chairs nature of the Conservative administrations since 2019, as well as Brexit and the pandemic being bigger issues, but in my view it’s still showing a lack of respect to voters for an election pledge to remain unfulfilled four years on.
With this latest delay the question is, was it Michael Gove’s fault for speaking out when things weren’t quite ready, or is this another case of Tory backbenchers spooking the current leadership?
The latter seems plausible, as we’ve already seen the influence the backbenchers hold on this government via the scrapping of housebuilding targets and with Gove rowing back on abolishing the leasehold system.
But fundamentally if the Tories don’t go ahead and reform the rental market, Labour will end up doing it in their image in a few years’ time anyway.
Whichever government is in charge, renters are likely to become an increasingly powerful voting force in the years ahead – there’s an ever-bigger proportion of them – and ‘no fault’ evictions will be incompatible with this future, while tenants are broadly going to want more rights in various areas.
So in my opinion the Tories need to get on with it and fulfill their manifesto pledge – the key is making sure the Section 8 eviction process is fit for purpose, and there’s a need to appease renters without spooking the nation’s landlords so much that they leave in droves.
It’s not an easy task, but doing nothing is not an option – it’s about time the Tories show their hand.
