What problem is the Renters’ Rights Bill addressing?

The Renters Rights Bill rightly highlights long-standing issues around affordability, security, and fair treatment for tenants.

But alongside rental reforms, we also need to address hidden costs renters face—like the growing burden of energy bills in poorly insulated homes.

In Reply to Andrew
Andrew why do you think Tenants are being treated unfairly. ?
A lot of Landlords on this site have long standing tenants and according to one survey 85% are Happy with their lot.
Are Rents going to be any more affordable when there are less properties to rent ?
Are Private Rental properties any better or worse than private or council rents ? Test yourself put a post code look at the EPC certificates and work out which are Rental or not ?
With regards to affordable Rents I agree but consider Landlords are paying tax on Turnover so over a certain limit 40% of the rent goes in tax .
And your Gas and Electric is more Expensive because of Net Zero Tariff’s.
Consider who wants to buy a £150000 asset and give it to someone else.
Regards

As I recall, the RRB originated with pressure groups like GR et al complaining that landlords were tax-advantaged, enabling them to buy up property inventory, thereby creating a shortfall of available properties for aspiring first time buyers and forcing them reluctantly to rent instead, wasting their hard-earned money by putting it into their greedy and undeserving landlord’s pocket instead, enabling landlords to enrich themselves at the expense of working people.
Government then decided to “fix” this supposed problem by trying to force landlords out with punitive taxes like section 21 and SDLT, leading to landlords evicting tenants mostly due to selling up, often after many years, or needing to raise rents. Together with an increasing population, and the resulting shortfall of affordable or even available alternative accommodation, this was an entirely predictable consequence, and meant that tenants increasingly found themselves homeless with nowhere to go, often after many happy years in the same property. This then generating loads more ammunition for GR et al and sales for newspapers selling stories about heartless landlords making people homeless and how everybody has the the right to a decent stable home, which landlords were callously taking away (how dare they?).
GR et al and of course govt naturally could not possibly blame themselves for the fiasco that they had deliberately caused, so they then blamed landlords for NOT renting out their properties or for putting up rents to cope with the extra taxes, and for just about every other evil under the sun whilst they were about it. Since section 21 was a preferred route to get speedy possession, GR et al then focused on this as being the root cause of all the injustice of people losing their homes and demanded that something must be done about it.
So govt, this time under Theresa May, decided to “fix” the problem and right all that was wrong with the world of renting by abolishing the now-hated Section 21 and add a few other things into the mix just to make landlords feel even more like pariahs in a civilised world.
Naturally, it won’t fix the problem but will just create more problems like all the other attempts to fix what is basically a very expensive and inefficient housing system that does not supply enough housing of all types to those that need it. It will surely fail more and more every time government try to intervene with solutions that simply do not address the real problem.
It’s been 10 years since Osborne initiated the rental crisis. It will be very interesting to see what the landscape looks like in another 5 years, but you can guarantee that it will be worse for tenants that need somewhere to live, just like after all the previous changes.

Reply to the comment left by Northernpleb at 07/07/2025 – 16:24It would be helpful to check the facts.

The PRS was providing approximately 21% of homes at it’s peak, when Osbourne decided we should be rewarded for investing in homes and housing a significant proportion of the rental market which had historically been served by social providers. That reward was both S24 and the multiple dwelling surcharge.

In 5 years many accidental and other traditional direct PRS landlords will have sold up, making way for professional BTR operators. It is hardly surprising that the Government has chosen this route given the reluctance of so many landlords to training and accreditation, combined with failing to recognise that joining a landlord association would have helped support a stronger voice for smaller operators.

It is what will happen over the next 5 years, not when we get there, that will be challenging for both landlords and tenants.

Lord Kinnock, with his comments on wealth taxes, has in the last couple of days, kicked away any positivity that there might have been that the housing market might recover between now and the budget in the Autumn.

One year in and I’m getting déjà vu as we face another nervous summer waiting for both tax rises and clarity on the RRB.

Reply to the comment left by ANdrew simmon at 07/07/2025 – 18:25
‘The Renters Rights Bill rightly highlights long-standing issues around affordability, security, and fair treatment for tenants’

Specifics please, these statements are unquantified and are no more relevant to tenants than anyone else who may be purchasing a property.

Banks can put mortgage rates up 8 times a year, a landlord only once – how is this fair? Is it fair that landlords are not allowed to cover increasing costs. The government chose to hold housing benefit payments this year despite forcing higher costs on landlords, is that fair? Unquantified statements are emotive and unhelpful. Vulnerable tenants will suffer most because of policy that is only partially considered.

More reasons why landlords use Section 21, from my own experience

– tenant imported a drug-dealing boyfriend and proved incapable of kitchen hygiene, leading to my first and only infestation of cockroaches in 40 years as a landlord and a house share resident myself

– most common reason houseshare breakdown. I had to evict because the tenants were at each other’s throats and no-one would back down and move out. Reasons:
– stray cat given home. Tender hearted woman took it in. Three of the five housemates objected – asthma, yowling (cat, not tenant), furniture scratching, fouling the carpets (ditto)
– new tenant proved to be a heavy drinker prone t playing music late at night. It’s him or us, the others said.
– two lads fancied the same girl, she strung them both along. Jealously, scowling, fights. No cat this time.
– ultra-liberal woman versus meat-eating Northern Irish DUP-voting guy. No compromises possible. Two other tenants tiptoeing round the. “One of them goes, or we do” they said.

So most of my few Section 21s were because of housemate intolerance, not an evil landlord seeking rent rises or a “revenge” eviction. I’ve never, ever done that. I was even asked by some to use S21, to avoid a Section 8 and a CCJ and a judgement going on their credit record!

All such give and take is going to become scarcer because the RRB raises the risk factor significantly and positively encourages a confrontational approach to landlord-tenant relationships.

Reply to the comment left by Rod at 07/07/2025 – 21:02
Hi Rod ,
Not sure which facts are not true.
There are lies, Dam lies, and Politicians statements .
The 40% relates to the Tax Rate paid by Landlords owning properties in their own name.
I agree The Government is trying to force out mom and pop Landlords.
Regards