Labour's Lisa Nandy has criticised landlords and vowed to help the social rented sector overtake the private rented sector as the second largest housing tenure in the country.

In a speech to the ongoing Labour party conference, shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy said it would also create a Renters' Charter, giving tenants more rights and safer homes, in the first 100 days of a Labour government.

'For private renters we will tilt the balance of power back to you through a powerful new renters' charter and a new decent homes standard '� written into law,'� she told delegates.

In a rallying cry to the party faithful, Nandy said Labour would make it her priority to tackle the housing crisis.

'The Tories have turned housing into a racket, incentivising speculation and profiteering, while millions languish in cold damp homes.'�

Pets and evictions

The charter is expected to include an end to automatic evictions for rent arrears and no-fault evictions, the right for renters to have pets, to make reasonable alterations to a property, and to introduce a four-month notice period for landlords.

It would also create a national register of landlords, a legally binding decent homes standard, and the potential for schemes to make tenancy deposits more portable.

Nandy added that it would focus unapologetically on providing more council housing and that Labour would be the first government in a generation to restore social housing to the second largest form of housing.

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle (pictured) says it's depressing that the Labour Party is once again demonising all landlords.

Ending automatic repossessions for rent arrears would send a dangerous signal that paying rent was somehow an optional extra, he believes.

'Labour should be focused instead on preventing rent arrears in the first place by unfreezing housing benefit rates and addressing the supply crisis in the private rented sector which is the biggest driver of rents,'� he says.