Renters’ Rights Bill enters report stage but unlikely to become law before summer recess
10 months ago | 2 comments
Will Labour ever turn to PRS landlords to help them out?
9:31 AM, 13th June 2025, 10 months ago
21
It was comforting to read the words of Nigel Terrington, the chief executive of Paragon Bank, who recently highlighted a stark reality: we need more landlords!
He was talking about the UK’s population being projected to surge by 4 million by 2032 – has anyone voted for this? – and most newcomers, particularly immigrants, will rent rather than buy.
This is piling unprecedented pressure on an already strained rental market, pushing rents skyward and leaving tenants scrambling for scarce properties.
Yet, instead of nurturing the PRS, the government seems hell-bent on driving small landlords out of business.
Demand outstrips supply
Mr Terrington’s warning is clear, that demand for rental properties is outstripping supply, with 15 to 20 tenants vying for every available home in many areas, especially in student towns.
This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a crisis.
While Mr Terrington can see the problem AND a solution, it appears that the incompetent Labour government cannot see either.
The Renters’ Rights Bill and the proposed ludicrous Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) regulations are squeezing small landlords, many of whom are selling up rather than navigating a hostile buy to let landscape.
Who can blame them? Who wants the aggro?
EPC regulations for landlords
So, let’s talk about the EPC regulations. No-one is sure yet what they will consist of from next year, but we could see changes to the EPC calculation so that properties which are currently rated C, being downgraded to D.
That’s a massive blow beneath the waterline for landlords since it renders those homes unrentable unless landlords fork out thousands for heat pumps or solar panels.
The downside to small landlords leaving the PRS is that the market will be dominated by large portfolio landlords but eventually, I believe, they too will be squeezed out.
That will leave tenants at the mercy of corporate players or HMO landlords catering to those who can’t afford even a modest one-bedroom flat.
Poorly paid tenants, and those on benefits, are looking at a worrying future but they don’t seem to realise just how bad things are going to be.
I’m guessing that when the council hands them a tent, the penny might drop.
Thankfully, and just in time, Angela Rayner has this week legalised rough sleeping!
Sixth form politics
Labour’s apparent disdain for small landlords is baffling, and it looks like sixth form common room politics have survived the journey into Parliament.
They’ve ignored MPs, the House of Lords and the National Residential Landlords Association, all of whom have warned that strangling the PRS will only worsen the housing crisis.
Instead of encouraging investment in rental properties, policies seem designed to eradicate small players.
Higher rents mean higher profits, and higher profits mean more tax revenue – cynics (not me) might argue this is no accident.
But it’s not just about supply. The Renters’ Rights Bill, while protecting tenants, has shifted the balance so far that landlords face huge risks.
Non-paying or destructive tenants will be near-impossible to evict without costly court battles and bailiffs.
Decent tenants, who make up the majority, suffer as a result.
Labour appears to be ignoring the bigger picture: there’s a chronic shortage of homes, exacerbated by a failure to address mass immigration’s impact on housing demand.
Again, we should be grateful for Labour’s promise to build more social homes this week.
Those homes will mostly be for the people who are turning up in the country, not the ones whose taxes will be paying the bill.
It’s government failure
Some might argue that Mr Terrington’s call for more landlords misses the mark and that the real issue isn’t a lack of landlords – it’s a lack of properties.
Immigration, while a lightning rod, is only part of the equation.
We have decades of underinvestment in housing, coupled with a planning system that stifles development, which have left the UK woefully unprepared for population growth.
Calling for an end to mass immigration, as some suggest, might ease pressure temporarily, but it sidesteps the deeper structural failures.
We need bold action: streamlined planning, incentives for new builds, and a private rented sector that doesn’t punish small landlords for daring to invest.
The warning signs are there, and Mr Terrington’s plea for more landlords is a cry for common sense in a policy landscape that seems anything but sensible.
The housing crisis isn’t just a market failure – it’s a government failure. Landlords, tenants and the country deserve better.
Until next time,
The Landlord Crusader
Tags:
BTL, Buy to let, EPC regulations, housing crisis, immigration, Private Rented Sector, Property investment, PRS, Rental market, renters rights bill, The Landlord Crusader, UK Housing Policy, UK Landlords
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Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 3237 - Articles: 81
7:24 PM, 13th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 13/06/2025 – 14:11
She’ll do it to take effect a few days later to stop people planning.
Yes too many straws that’s breaking out back. I’m currently selling all mine
Member Since September 2015 - Comments: 1013
7:29 PM, 13th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 13/06/2025 – 14:11
This is all designed to drive private Landlords out of the PRS.
If it hurts tenants then that’s just collateral damage – tough!
Member Since October 2023 - Comments: 14
7:31 PM, 13th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 13/06/2025 – 19:24
Not worth waiting for the next General Election and hoping for the best?
Member Since October 2011 - Comments: 136
8:18 PM, 13th June 2025, About 10 months ago
So are you suggesting that the Tories who, after all, initiated this determined assault on private landlords over the past 14 years understood this??
I’m not thrilled that the Labour Party aren’t actively undoing the harm the Tories did, but I really don’t see how most of the madness can be laid at their door
Member Since July 2023 - Comments: 14
9:35 AM, 14th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Irrespective of any policy this ridiculous government rolls out it will not come into effect. They have U Turned on every policy and the EPC is another which will roll back as the complete sell off will make this crisis even worse leading into election year.
Member Since October 2011 - Comments: 136
9:39 AM, 14th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Ben Beadles Alter Ego at 14/06/2025 – 09:35
So since when, regardless of one’s political persuasion, has listening to the public and changing or reversing a decision been a bad thing?
Imagine how many lives would have been saved if someone in power had said, after the first battle of the Somme, “well this isn’t working, let’s do something different”
Member Since October 2023 - Comments: 14
9:48 AM, 14th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Denise G at 14/06/2025 – 09:39
Since it was part of the manifesto that got you voted in by the public perhaps? (Political persuasion aside of course!)
Member Since October 2024 - Comments: 49
5:32 PM, 14th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Tenant groups say landlords can ” easily afford” EPC upgrades to Band C .
A 3 bedroomed semi in North Hertfordshire where I live built in 1933,92 years ago is typically a Band D ,EPC.
To bring it and similar properties up to Band C will involve installation of a heat pump,additional insulation ,new plumbing and new radiators.
That ,assuming the suitably qualified workmen and heat pump engineers can be found will cost £30,000 gbp plus VAT even after grants .
If current rents of say £1150 GBP a month are increased by say £100 gbp a month it is going to take decades to recover that outlay .
With £30,000 gbp invested in Scotch whiskey one can make 8% to 14% a year with no capital gains tax as it is considered a ” wasting asset”,physical gold and silver or cryptocurrency assuming one knows what one is doing are better bets .
Supposedly ,moving to Band C is going to help save the planet and help tenants keep warm at lower cost.
In reality we are in the Grand Solar Minimum( See Dr Irena Zharkova’s presentation on You Tube) .
We are getting colder not warmer and this will go on till 2055 by which time a lot of elderly landlords will be dead or certainly ready to answer to their maker.
The UK is responsible for less than 1% of global carbon emissions so even if one believes Ed Miliband’s and the BBC’s lies about warming it is all pointless.
There are not enough heat pump engineers to retrofit the UK’s old housing stock and not enough construction workers ( we are 250,000 short) To do the work let alone build 1.5 million new houses by the end of the parliament.
Labour will be out of office after July 2029 and with the abolition of the Vagrancy Act we will see tent cities like those in Los Angeles and our own Park Lane.
If tenants are not willing to have the retrofitting works done how will councils enforce the legislation .
Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 3237 - Articles: 81
3:25 PM, 15th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Candyman1980 at 13/06/2025 – 19:31
Not if u been doing it years & you’ve had enough anyway. And you’ve only been keeping for the tenants for the last 8 years.
Member Since May 2018 - Comments: 1999
1:25 PM, 17th June 2025, About 10 months ago
Reply to the comment left by John Gelmini at 14/06/2025 – 17:32
I doubt that managing tenants is the only option anyway.
https://www.serco.com/uk/sites/serco-aasc/landlords
The link above describing the Serco contract says:
“We are looking for landlords, investors and agents with properties available in the North West, Midlands, or East of England. All types of properties will be considered….we are responsible for over 30,000 asylum seekers with a portfolio of more than 7,000 properties. Our operating model is based on leasing properties from a wide network of landlords, investors and agents with Serco acting as tenant.”
The Midlands would cover Nottingham so Mick Roberts for example could find that Serco is a more viable option than trying to manage tenants in receipt of universal credit.
I’m guessing that that ‘all types of properties’ could include band D, E or F. I can’t see any ‘asylum seeker’ not being grateful for an EPC band D home even if they are presently in a hotel.
The link also says:
“Serco tenancy agreements are now recognised as secure lettings by numerous lenders and therefore access to funding for service user occupied buy-to-let properties has become an easier proposition for lenders.”
Previously neither my lender nor my insurer would let me do this but it seems things may be changing.