Landlords silenced as the Renters’ Rights Bill runs out of steam

“I’ve mentioned before that the Bill effectively removes a landlord’s control of their own property which is just nonsense on stilts.”

So having legal ownership, but having the rights of ownership removed.

Having the responsibility but not the control

All very true.

Glad I saw the light and commenced the selling off in 2018.

I only, stupidly some say and towards the end would probably agree, ever rented to those on benefits.

Interestingly the last tenant found somewhere else and 6 months later was served a s21, and she was a nice tenant always paid on time and was a normal decent person and looked after the property, as the new landlord had also just seen the light.

Labour will reap what it has sown in many things. Just hope those that voted for them will not next time. Well that’s if we have a democratic country left by the time Starmer et Al have finished.

Reply to the comment left by Downsize Government at 17/10/2025 – 11:07
Take your pick, it’s either communism, the overt control by the state, or REAL fascism, control by the corporate facilitated by the state e.g. the Soviet Union or pre Anschluss Austria, in reality there is no choice, the ‘left’ and ‘right’ spectrum is a wholly fictitious distinction, just two faces of the same coin

I don’t know why the PRS is surprised. Its supposed advocates — all those organisations collecting membership fees — have mounted no real resistance and simply walked into the government’s trap of endless round-table discussions.

The PRS needs to understand that the government’s objective is political: to dismantle the private rented sector for votes. Regulation has already stripped landlords of the benefits of ownership while leaving them with the capital obligations, maintenance responsibilities, and risks.

Before the next election, expect rent restrictions (why do you think the Rent Officer Service wasn’t abolished?), perpetual tenancies, and rights of first refusal for tenants on sale. Landlords will still be “allowed” to sell, but only at values reflecting regulated rents, perpetual occupancy, and ongoing repair liabilities.

We have been here before. The same thing happened under the Rent Act 1977 when a previous Labour government destroyed the PRS. When Thatcher came to power in 1979, it took until the Housing Act 1988 to reverse the damage — and another decade for the infrastructure necessary to rebuild the sector to take shape.

Unless today’s weak PRS membership organisations finally show some teeth and mount serious opposition, Labour will fulfil its 1.5-million homes pledge not by building new houses but by granting tenants the right to buy their existing homes — at the heavily suppressed prices created by this and the next phases of legislation.

The iPaper just published an article entitled “I’m a landlord renting to asylum seekers – it’s easier and more lucrative.”

https://inews.co.uk/news/housing/landlord-renting-asylum-seekers-easier-lucrative-3979033#:~:text=The%20i%20Paper%20reported%20earlier,steady%2C%20long%2Dterm%20income.

Twenty years ago I used to take benefits tenants. I don’t do it anymore because if it turns out that the tenant isn’t entitled to benefits after all, or if the tenants’ circumstances change such that they lose their entitlement to benefits, then the housing benefit people can come back and get the money back off me as the landlord. But as a landlord I have no powers to check that the tenant is entitled to benefits. So I just don’t do it and haven’t done it for years. The proposals in the Renters Rights Bill and the current state of the courts will increase the pool of people who will become too high risk to be housed by a private landlord.

What the government needs to do is pass legal responsibility for deciding who is eligible to be housed to whoever is responsible for controlling the benefits purse strings and actually has legal access to the relevant personal data. These are the only people who have the powers to determine eligibility…not private landlords.

Passing the Renters Rights Bill in its present form and therefore making it more risky to house a range of people from the self-employed to UC claimants than to house an asylum seeker is an act of exceptional stupidity and incompetence. It is even worse than raising employers NI, lowering the level at which NI is paid, raising the minimum wage and giving employees full employment rights from day one. It is worse because it is likely to fuel right-wing extremism in areas where people are already marginalised.

P.S. I can already hear Rayner’s Labour cry:

“Not only have we fulfilled our pledge to provide 1.5 million homes, we’ve also made it possible for those who could never afford to buy to finally become homeowners — and we’ve removed the ill-gotten gains of the past from the pockets of greedy landlords.”

The mortgage industry will fall over itself to issue loans based on the discounted purchase prices, because as soon as the tenant buys, the artificially suppressed capital value will rise to open-market levels — leaving lenders with loan-to-value ratios below 50%.

And Rayner will triumphantly add:

“We’ve even secured the backing of the mortgage industry to support this great transfer of ownership into the hands of the people who’ve already paid for it.”

There will be no greater vote-winner. It will secure them another five years in power.

The PRS needs to realise it’s in a game of chess for which it is currently ill-equipped — and the Government has only made its opening move. The playbook is written in past legislation, and they are highly skilled at the game.

Reply to the comment left by Person Of The People at 17/10/2025 – 12:23
Each government does like to tell its own lies: Fortunately we still live in a country where we have free speech and a free press and we get to call out the stupidity of their policies.

The government doesn’t have enough money to achieve energy security; the government doesn’t have enough money to pay for national security (and isn’t very good at doing it); it doesn’t have enough money for defence; it also doesn’t have enough money to build houses if it increases employers’ NI, the range over which NI is paid, increase the minimum wage, and give employees full employment rights from day one.

The bit of the market that could buy the houses and flats that have already been built is the PRS. That’s OBVIOUS. All of this is obvious to anyone who isn’t an idiot.

And so the government of the day tells lies and hopes that people are stupid enough to believe them. But in the end people who tell lies get found out and their repeatedly bleating out that “…it is all the fault of the previous government…” or “…all the fault of the Reform Party..” just has a more hollow ring to it every time they say it.

If they implement the RRB in its present form they will blame their incompetence on a scapegoat…possibly landlords, possibly the previous government or Reform. But the truth is that if they keep attacking the PRS rather than involving it in the solution it will be their stupidity and incompetence that is at fault.

Making it more risky to house a benefits tenant or UC claimant than an asylum seeker is a really stupid thing to do.

The good news is that I can give notice immediately the RRB is passed and terminate a 2 year contract, so that I can sell the property.

Without the RRA I would have had to wait until the 2 years had passed!

P.P.S. Landlord Crusader does a great job but I don’t understand why it interprets this failure to protect the PRS in the following way:
“…But you ignored us, and now tenants need to prepare for very bad news.”

The Landlord Crusader only needs to read history — and become more of a property political tactician.

Read my last two posts in this article. The Government has landlords exactly where it wants them — in a headlock.

It’s now waiting for retaliatory rent increases to provide the perfect cover for introducing rent controls. Properties will then begin to fall into disrepair. Councils will step in to enforce maintenance obligations or appoint their own contractors at the landlord’s expense. Property charges will be placed on titles to recover those costs — the legislation for this already exists.

That will provide the pretext to grant tenants the Right of First Refusal, just as Labour did under the Rent Act 1977. They may well go further and give tenants a Right to Buy at a price determined by the still-functioning Rent Officer Service or the Valuation Office Agency.

The Government already has the playbook and infrastructure ready. All it needs now is for landlords to play into its hands — and ministers are watching, 24/7, for the moment they do.

Talk to your remarkable founder, Mark Alexander — I’m sure he’ll concur or have seen it all before.