Landlord sell-off before Renters’ Rights Act leaves rental market under pressure
5 days ago | 3 comments
Prime Minister and tenant groups celebrate Renters’ Rights Act
9:15 AM, 21st May 2026, 4 days ago
12
Categories:
The Prime Minister claimed the new renters’ rights laws would “rip up the status quo” as tenant groups and politicians gathered to celebrate the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force.
At an event at Number 10 Downing Street this week, groups including Generation Rent and the Renters’ Reform Coalition gathered to welcome new protections for renters.
The act came into effect on 1 May 2026 and included the abolition of Section 21 evictions and the end of fixed-term tenancies.
Not a dry piece of legislation
Generation Rent posted on its website that its chief executive, Ben Twomey, “spoke about how the Renters’ Rights Act is finally a recognition that the way we rent has changed dramatically over the past forty years and that renters need to be able to put down roots in their communities, without the fear of being evicted for no reason”.
The group added that the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, “talked in glowing terms about how renters would benefit from their new protections”.
As reported in The Sun, Mr Starmer said the new rights would “rip up the failed status quo”.
He said: “We had to fight for this. We did this very much together.
“This is not a dry piece of legislation that just sits on the statute books, it makes a real impact for renters.”
When contacted by Property118, the government told us landlord groups such as the National Residential Landlords Association and The Independent Landlord also attended the event.
Renters have suffered
Later on, in a post on Facebook, Mr Stamer claimed the Act would “help working people”.
The post said: “This month, new laws for renters came into effect. We have ended no-fault evictions, cracked down on unfair rent hikes, and banned bidding wars. For decades, renters have suffered in a system designed to exploit them.
“I said my government would end the status quo that has failed the British people, and I meant it.
“We are putting power back where it belongs: in the hands of working people.”
Angela Rayner was at the event
The Sun also reported former Housing Secretary Angela Rayner was at the event to mark the Act coming into force.
This came after Ms Rayner claimed she had been “exonerated by HMRC of deliberately avoiding tax” and did not need to pay a financial penalty over stamp duty.
Ms Rayner resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary after admitting she failed to pay the correct amount of stamp duty on her flat in Hove.
However, HMRC has declined to comment on Ms Rayner’s claim, with a spokesperson telling The Telegraph it could not respond due to confidentiality laws.
Comments
Have Your Say
Every day, landlords who want to influence policy and share real-world experience add their voice here. Your perspective helps keep the debate balanced.
Not a member yet? Join In Seconds
Login with
or
Previous Article
Might you be over exposed to property investment?
Member Since October 2024 - Comments: 28
12:50 PM, 22nd May 2026, About 3 days ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 22/05/2026 – 12:00
Well, apparently I will be 74 shortly and have concluded with “all of the above” nonsense from successive “Governments”, that I am too old to care. I’ve run down from 15 student houses to 2. My sales have been to younger, more dynamic and more optimistic long term investors and it made me happy to see such people still exist!! I also wish everybody here all the best during these chaotic and unfriendly (to Landlords) times.
Member Since May 2018 - Comments: 2075
1:32 PM, 22nd May 2026, About 3 days ago
Reply to the comment left by GEORGE WARREN at 22/05/2026 – 12:50
Good for you, good luck with your retirement. A bit of a shame though that the “younger, more dynamic and more optimistic” (i.e. probably incorporated and rich) investors won’t be able to learn from your experience.
Being optimistic (although not young) I can see that the Labour Renters Rights Act isn’t all bad. I can think of two good consequences of the RRA. The first is that being told that we have to send all of our tenants a letter, mandated by government, saying that if they don’t (a) pay the rent (b) get on with the neighbours (c) look after the property is a good thing. Thank you very much parliament for this good bit of the RRA that would probably have come about under a conservative, labour, or reform government (if such a thing were possible in our electoral system).
As for why the second good consequence is a good bit to be celebrated with a slow clap by people other than our venerated leader, Kier Starmer: The renting electorate probably doesn’t understand that it is government policy driving rents up. They are probably too busy trying to either get a job or keep a job in an environment where labour increased employers NI, dropped the level at which it kicked in, increased the minimum wage and increased the risk of employing people by proposing extending workers rights to them on day one. As a consequence of those real-labour-ideology changes and proposals a lot of people are going to be unemployed for well over a year and it is going to affect their entire lifetime prospects, their health, their chances of getting on and where they can afford to live, or rent. But it’s hard for people who are busy “striving” to understand all that and to be able to recognise easily who not to vote for in an election if you actually aspire to get somewhere in life, realise your true potential, or have a family.
So the second good consequence of the RRA is this: If you want to identify the most loathsome, incompetent and dishonest politicians…the ones who are going to damage you and your family. If you want to identify the politicians who have never had a real job and have their heads stuck far up their own backsides looking at the excreta of labour policies that were proven indigestible decades ago. If you want to avoid, at all costs, the incompetent hypocrites who only really care about climbing the greasy pole of politics to further their own careers, it’s now easy for the electorate to identify those politicians and those parties.
The second good bit of the RRA is that it’s easy to see that the truly venal parties and politicians who are too stupid to learn from the lessons of history and in any case too dishonest to care about the consequences for the citizens they aspire to represent are those politicians and parties talking about RENT CONTROLS.