Government criticised for ‘watered down’ Renting Reform Bill

I have always been a great tenant. I always paid my rent on time. I was always very careful to take care of the property. So when I asked why I had received this notice, I was told it was a section 21. They felt the eviction and didn't need to give me a reason for six and a half years. Tom has called this west London his home, well, his home, now it's being uprooted and dispossessed, and when he presses for reasons, I press him a little harder to ask him. I know why they evicted me and you know they are very secretive in their response, they didn't need to give a reason, section 21, no fault eviction, they are allowed and you have to deal with it, section 21 or so, no fault. evictions would be banned, as per the Conservative promise in their 2019 Manifesto, Housing Secretary Michael Go promised again that they would be banned at the next election in February, but he was asked about it now, you guaranteed then that no, that section 21, no-fault evictions would be banned by the election and you can't make that guarantee today it's all up to the House of Lords so my determination is to ensure that this

bill

gets on the statute book but it's up to The Lords decide the rate of progress.

What can we do today, the Tenant Reform Bill has been passed by Parliament, but it is a very different looking Bill to that which was initially proposed under pressure from the Conservative benches; It has been diluted and some wanted even more concessions; we now call simple lease assignments no-fault evictions who is to blame when a previously agreed lease ends at a future date no changes include forcing tenants to commit to a minimum six-month period when

renting

a property and a prohibition on delaying no-fault evictions for existing tenants until the attorney general assesses the court system's readiness to address recovery claims.

The charities that once supported this

bill

and are now washing their hands of it, we actually think that this current bill in Parliament is not as good as the existing system. in a generational opportunity to get it right the last time housing legislation was changed 35 years ago we have an opportunity to strengthen tenants' rights and right now the situation is that this bill is useless, is it really so important? there are 11 million private renters in England in an election year tenants will remember who it was that spoke for them and sought to protect their interests and support decent housing security and who it was that gave in to landlords the

government

say its

reform

s They will improve standards in the private rental sector, a sector that has doubled in size in the last 20 years, 14 of which have been run by the so-called home ownership party.

Well, now the general director joins us in the studio. from the National Residential Landlords Association Ben Beetle and later by Rental Generation CEO Ben Tumi this Ben firstly um this was supposed to abolish no-fault evictions this bill did the landlord lobby lean on Tory MPS to get it

watered

down no, it does that and more here and removes fixed term trends, removes section 21, introduces a 21, it's not the fault of the evictions, well section 21 is the legal way to end for a fixed term or ending a periodic tenure eh, it is not necessary to give a reason, there may be one, but it is not necessary to give a reason, but it also presents an ombudsman, presents a real estate portal, presents a whole series of measures that will improve the sector. for landlord Sam Renes, if he says he eliminates no-fault evictions, can you tell me when that will happen, when that ban will come in?

Well, I'm not the

government

. Bring on Mr Gove, he replied that it has to happen first. uh, through the Lords, but it's very clear, well, that and not just the Lords, the justice secretary has to say that the courts are ready to process all these claims and that's why housing campaigners say, well this is a major loophole, they are not actually abolishing these there are no false addictions at all, it is not a loophole at all, the Secretary of State, once the bill has been passed, can set a date With six months notice for new Trends, the part on which there will be a review will be the period between new Trends. uh section 21 is being abolished for new tenants and before it's abolished for existing tenants, let's move on to the other Ben from generation rent, so are you as happy as Ben from the NAT Landlord Association?

We think we are much less happy as tenant organizations. that the bill in its current form is going to fail at what it said it was going to achieve, which is to ban section 21 no-fault evictions, we have been in five years almost a million tenants have faced no-fault eviction since then. We promised for the first time and we are still not clear when that moment could be. If they pass it, there are a number of things they have to do to fix the bill anyway because the new note, all the arguments they're making, don't really deliver. since someone has to be evicted, so right now you would get a two month notice and you would still get a two month notice under the current bill that is leaving people homeless, that is putting people in tiers record in temporary accommodation and that is What the government really needs to fix before tenant groups can be satisfied is going to make a significant difference, that this may be the headline of no-fault evictions, but there is much more to the project law that that, don't you think in some? aspects or can you think of some aspects where it is a better deal for tenants?

There are really important areas where Generation Rent campaigned where we have achieved Government promises about including a landlord register for the first time in England and the idea that we are going to improve decent housing standards, but a lot of this is based on the idea that no-fault evictions are eliminated because if you don't, there is still that risk for tenants who are afraid to file a complaint because they could be kicked out for no reason at any time, so we also need to put an end to it to those no-fault evictions, otherwise standards can never be improved because tenants live in fear and there is a power imbalance in our own homes, so how do we square this circle? uh Ben from the National Residential Landlords Association because the housing campaign used to support this bill now they don't and you're telling me that everything is fine, well I'm not telling you that everything is fine, I'm telling you that I think This bill is a reasonable compromise, you know, this represents the most significant change in more than 30 years.

It has to be a balanced bill with some give and take on both sides. Ben is not right here, he will abolish section 21, he will abolish it for new tenancies. and for the existing Trends, but it is correct, it is absolutely true that if you are a landlord dependent on a new system, do not wait 9 months to regain possession of your property and it is fanciful to suggest that the land laws evict people Willy You only say it's a balanced bill, but that would mean it had the support of tenants and landlords, well, and it doesn't.

You're one of the owners and Ben, I just want to bring you there to answer because it's you. you are representing the tenants and you do not agree. I think that's exactly right. You think it's balanced. We're in an absurd position where landlords are so excited about this bill that's supposed to be for renters and tenant groups are the ones saying it's failing. The time has come to deliver on what we need to happen if we want once-in-a-generation change to happen. It is absurd that the farm laws tell tenants what is good for us when we say exactly, very clearly, what needs to change in this bill.

We need two months notice to disappear. We need to move to four months. We also need to be protected in our homes right now. Only six months is how long you will be protected from a no-fault eviction in this new bill. We need it to be two years before people can start leaving Roots. We're not really happy about this, but the owners seem ecstatic, to be honest. Okay, Ben, far from being ecstatic, in fact, the reason I'm afraid. We're out of time but I appreciate that your two months isn't enough because that's not enough houses, that's the bottom line and the bill doesn't address that Ben, thank you Ben Beetle Ben Tumi, both Ben, thank you very much.