Generation Rent has urged renters to get more MPs backing amendments to the Renters’ Rights Bill.

The tenant group explains that the upcoming legislation won’t end high rental costs and hopes that as many MPs as possible will support proposals made by the Renters Reform Coalition during the next Commons debate in the new year.

It explains: “The proposed blanket ban on landlords pitting tenant against tenant in bidding wars cannot come soon enough, but if landlords are allowed to continue with unchecked and unaffordable rent rises, thousands more of us will still be forced into poverty and on to the streets.

“Tenants are still vulnerable to homelessness if our landlord wants to sell or move in, while the new landlord database and higher standards won’t make a difference if it is easy for the worst landlords to avoid registering or making improvements.”

Rental crisis

The Renters Reform Coalition’s plan on addressing the renting crisis includes an automatic right to non-payment of rent in the final two months before a tenant vacates, in cases where a landlord has used no-fault eviction grounds along with a proposal to protect renters from a no-fault eviction for the first two years of their tenancy.

It wants the government to set up a National Rental Affordability Commission to investigate effective methods to make renting more affordable, including rent control measures and a cap on in-tenancy rent increases of the lowest of either inflation or wage growth.

The coalition is also calling for a new legal right to pause rent payments where a landlord fails to carry out essential repairs within a defined timeline.