The Renters’ Rights Bill is facing delays in the parliamentary process and is not expected to receive Royal Assent until autumn at the earliest.
The bill, which had its first reading in September 2024, aims to provide greater security and stability for both tenants and landlords in England, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Measures in the bill, including the ban on rental bidding wars and rent in advance, will be subject to transition periods, with no implementation dates confirmed yet, a standard part of the legislative process.
The delays have not gone unnoticed.
Generation Rent head of campaigns Nye Jones said: “These changes are long overdue now tenants will have to continue to live in this broken system for even longer.
“We really hoped that it would happen by this summer.
“But due to the weight of reforms going through the different houses, the bill has taken longer to get through Parliament than we initially expected.”
The bill includes the abolition of Section 21, also known as no-fault evictions, which allows landlords to evict tenants without giving a reason.
Since the Conservative government first pledged to ban Section 21 in April 2019, a total of 37,684 households have been evicted under this legislation, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice.
Over 116,000 households in England have been threatened with eviction since the ban was pledged, too.
Jones said: “Ending Section 21 is long, long overdue.
“With no-fault evictions hanging over renters, it has a huge impact on our ability to challenge landlords to bring up issues like mould and damp, because you can always be evicted on a whim, if you’re seen as not being a good tenant.”
Craig*, who lives in a flat share in south London, said: “I don’t know what I can do anymore.
“My bedroom ceiling is covered in mould. I think it’s making me sick.
“I’ve complained for the past year to my letting agent, but ultimately, I know if I complain too much, that I could just be evicted and I’m not sure I could afford elsewhere.”
Craig said that after work he prefers to stay out, at the gym or in the summer, at the nearby park.
He only comes home to cook, shower, and sleep.
Craig said he has tried to tackle the damp himself with mould remover sprays and has bought a dehumidifier, but the damp is coming from a loose tile on the exterior wall and it has not been fixed.
He said: “I’ve considered moving back home, back to Scotland.
“My monthly paycheck barely covers the rent, bills and my food.
“I wouldn’t say I have a great quality of life down here.”
Nearly a third (29%) of renters have reported a maintenance issue to their landlord that hasn’t been fixed, according to recent polling by Generation Rent.
The Renters’ Rights Bill proposes stronger protections to prevent tenants from facing retaliatory evictions, such as those triggered by complaints about repairs.
Acorn the Union policy officer Ben Leonard said: “We had a case in Lambeth, where one of our members was hit with an extraordinary rent rise, their rent was doubled.
“The member took reasonable steps to try and challenge the rent rise to try to reason with them, and fight the rent rise and was just immediately hit with a Section 21.
“For every case you see where somebody has complained and been a victim in retaliation, there’s probably a dozen more cases of people who would’ve complained but don’t because they don’t want to lose their home.”
Melanie was looking for a new flat in west London with her partner back in March, when they found one within their budget after two months of intense searching.
Melanie said that the letting agent advised they “bid” above the offer price to ensure they secure the property.
They did so, bidding £70 per month above the offer, and it was accepted.
When they moved in a month later, Melanie claimed the one-bedroom flat was dirty, including the mattress, and the kitchen was in a state of disrepair.
She said that they found mice droppings in the kitchen cupboards.
Melanie also claimed the landlord would not allow them to get rid of the mattress, even if she and her partner replaced it at their own cost.
She said: “I can’t quite believe that we’re paying this amount for a flat that is barely habitable.
“The worst part is that we don’t feel like we have much power to do anything.
“We’re stuck here until next year, and if we were to leave, it would be expensive and stressful to do it all over again, and we would probably end up in a similar situation anyway.”
Melanie believes that they should have been informed of the mice infestation before they moved in, and should be able to withhold rent until the flat is repaired and the infestation removed.
Tenants do not have the right to withhold rent if repairs are not done, and doing so would likely increase their risk of eviction.
The bill proposes to end the rental bidding Melanie and her partner experienced, but no date has been set for when this will become law.
However, there are no plans to allow tenants to withhold rent for repairs – a practice which is legal in Norway, Germany and some states in the USA – meaning tenants will still have to pay full rent even if the landlord is not fulfilling their responsibilities.
However, the introduction of periodic tenancies in place of all fixed-term tenancies mean that tenants will have the flexibility to leave if the property is unsuitable.
Melanie said: “I don’t want flexibility, I want stability.”
Ben said: “Tenants constantly move around to chase affordable rent, which has massive consequences for mental health.
“They say moving house is the second most stressful thing you can do after a divorce.”
Despite UK inflation sitting at 3.4% and wage growth at 5.3%, rent increases in England continue to outpace both.
Ben said: “The bill is a huge step in the right direction.
“But one thing it really fails to do is tackle the number one problem that renters face, which is affordability.
“Unaffordability is one of the biggest drivers of housing insecurity.”
Generation Rent polling showed 42% of private renters in England and Wales regularly struggle to pay their energy bills, and nearly half (44%) of those said they had to cut back on spending on essentials like food to afford their bills.
There are no plans for rent caps or regulation in the bill.
In July 2024, Minister of State for Housing and Planning Matthew Pennycook said: “The Government does not support the introduction of rent controls.
“We have made clear that we intend to use the Renters’ Rights Bill to provide tenants with greater protections against unreasonable within-tenancy rent increases.”
Tenants will be able to challenge unfair rent hikes through rent tribunals, however, and the details on this are not yet fully clear.
According to an analysis of the register of interests by the Renters’ Reform Coalition, 32% of those currently debating the Renters’ Rights Bill in the House of Lords are landlords who own properties in England.
It is not unimaginable that this conflict of interest may affect the bill’s strength by the time it becomes law.
The Renters’ Rights Bill is welcomed by campaigners, but with 25,000 households threatened with homelessness because of a Section 21 since the new Labour government came into power, the delays are likely to have a serious impact on tenants.
Jones said: “It’ll do a lot for renters, but it’s not the finish line yet.”
The government recognises the crisis and lays some of the blame on the housing shortage.
On 30 July 2024, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, delivered a statement in the House of Commons.
She said: “We are in the middle of the most acute housing crisis in living memory.
“Home ownership is out of reach for too many. The shortage of houses drives high rents, and too many are left without access to a safe and secure home.”
The final session of the report stage in the House of Lords is currently scheduled for 15 July.
*Craig is not his real name, he asked to remain anonymous
Image credit: Parisa Shirvani
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