Date Published 17 February 2023
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee has reviewed the White Paper outlining the UK Government risks. This undermines its own proposed tenancy reforms with MPs in the Committee debate, agreeing on areas and concerns Propertymark has highlighted.
The proposed reforms to the Private Rental Sector (PRS) will reduce the supply of rented properties and that the proposals do not seek to address the structural cause of the affordability crisis, the chronic undersupply of housing. Propertymark has also recommended that in the case of Section 21 that the UK government increases from six months to a one-year period at the start of a tenancy during which the landlord may not use either ground. Also an increase from three months to six months following the use of either ground during which the landlord may not market or re-let the property.
Another area which Propertymark has suggested is that Landlords need confidence that they can regain possession after issuing a Section 8, and the capacity of the courts is the biggest obstacle to this.
There is also agreement that the decent homes standard should apply to the PRS, but the standard must work for the different types of property and although the Committee's report highlighted energy efficiency targets, there was little mention of them in the White Paper. Additionally, MPs and the UK Government are failing to understand that unless grants and incentives are there for landlords, the targets won't be met.
