Housing bodies criticise delay to end in ‘no-fault’ evictions

The bill will also abolish assured shorthold tenancies, establish a fixed six-month term for all tenancies and, following this term, put tenants on periodic ‘rolling’ tenancies.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said the group supports the end to Section 21 evictions and assured shorthold tenancies.

It said these measures would help to give PRS tenants “greater security and stability” in their home and reduce the number of people facing homelessness due to ‘no-fault’ evictions or a tenancy ending.

However, the LGA criticised the amendment that would require the chancellor to publish an assessment on the barriers to possession and the readiness of the courts in advance of abolishing Section 21 for existing tenancies.

“We are very concerned that this amendment would delay the implementation of the ban, potentially indefinitely, if courts are found to be too delayed and reform is not forthcoming,” the LGA said.

“It is imperative that there is no delay in ending ‘no fault’ evictions. We are also calling on government to publish the evidence base that, firstly, court backlogs are severe enough to warrant a delay and secondly, that the changes brought in by the bill would have a substantial enough impact on these backlogs to warrant a delay in the abolition of Section 21 evictions.”

The LGA added: “If courts are found to need improvement to a sufficient degree to delay the introduction of the ban on Section 21 evictions, we call on the government to commit, in law, to delivering a strategy to reduce the backlog, backed up by sufficient funding, by a specified date. 

“While repealing Section 21 evictions will go a long way to create a fairer PRS and provide tenants with a greater sense of security, a key incentive for landlords to comply with basic legal requirements of a tenancy will be inadvertently lost.”

The Renters’ Reform Coalition (RRC), which is made up of 20 organisations united to reform the PRS, said that the group’s concerns “have not been taken seriously” and in its current form, the bill will be a “failure”.

The coalition’s members include charities the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Crisis, Shelter and Citizen’s Advice, and thinktank the New Economics Foundation. 

The RRC said: “Instead of engaging with us, the bill has been watered down again and again by the government, with several rounds of damaging concessions to backbench MPs that have fundamentally weakened it. The amendments tabled recently by the government are just the final straw.

“The result of all the government’s backtracking is that we now have a bill that abolishes Section 21 in name only – there is no guarantee it would ever fully abolish Section 21, and even then, the new tenancy system set to replace it will be little better.

“This legislation is intended to give the impression of improving conditions for renters, but in fact it preserves the central power imbalance at the root of why renting in England is in crisis.”

The RRC has set out several recommendations to government.

This includes reversing the concessions to the bill made to backbench MPs which see “the end of Section 21 delayed indefinitely, trapping tenants into tenancy for six months, and reviewing selective licensing to reduce the burden on landlords”.

The group has recommended government to give tenants four months’ notice when they are evicted, rather than two months’ notice proposed at present.

It added that government should protect renters from eviction under the new landlord circumstances grounds for the first two years of a tenancy, rather than the six months proposed.

The RRC recommended that the government implement “strong safeguards to prevent unscrupulous landlords abusing the new grounds for eviction, which risk being used in essentially the same way as Section 21 notices”.

The group said the bill should also give courts “maximum discretion” to identify whether there are good reasons why an eviction should not take place.

The group also recommended that the government limit in-tenancy rent increases at the lowest of either inflation or wage growth, to prevent unaffordable rent increases being no-fault ‘economic’ evictions.

The RRC said: “To the renters we represent and work alongside we say: in its current form this bill isn’t the change we have been promised, the change that might start to tackle this crisis in private renting.

“It is not too late to fix it. We are calling on ministers to immediately table amendments that enact our proposals. If we do not see a change in this government’s approach, it will fall to whoever forms the next government to introduce the change that renters demand and so desperately need.”

However, a spokesperson from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said that the department’s “commitment to scrap Section 21 no-fault evictions as soon as possible is unchanged”.

“We have always said we will give six months’ notice before ending Section 21 for all new tenancies,” the spokesperson said.

“In addition, we have committed to ensuring improvements in the courts service are rapidly implemented before extending this abolition to all existing tenancies.”

The Renters (Reform) Bill also applies a new Decent Homes Standard to the PRS for the first time, which was consulted on in 2022, and expands the homelessness prevention duty to protect vulnerable tenants.

It also outlaws blanket bans on tenants with children, or those in receipt of benefits, and gives renters a legal right to request a pet.

The bill strengthens and expands landlord possession grounds, including stronger protections against anti-social behaviour.

It will also help to introduce a new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman to help resolve disputes between landlords and tenants more quickly.