The government must focus on sustaining a vibrant private rented sector (PRS) and not “hark back to the wonders of the 1970s with social housing and council housing…as being a really great thing,” warns NRLA boss Ben Beadle (main image, left).
Giving evidence at the committee stage of the Renters’ Rights Bill, he pointed to “horrible stories” of local authority properties being in serious disrepair.
Added Beadle: “We have lower satisfaction in the social sector than we do for the private rented sector and at the same time we’re focusing on making life really difficult for those responsible landlords with good quality accommodation to bring it to market.”
Beadle told MPs that the term accidental or amateur landlord wasn’t particularly helpful when discussing reforms.
“If you consider yourself an amateur landlord that’s arguably part of the problem. I don’t think we can have amateur landlords - having a lettings business is a business, whether you’ve got one or 10 properties that you need to do properly.”
He stressed the need to reform the court system for landlords needing to gain possession, and said a pre-action protocol could help, along with digitisation.
Beadle added that the antiquated tribunal system risked being deluged by tenants challenging rent increases.
Theresa Wallace (main image, left), chair of The Lettings Industry Council, told MPs that more homelessness would be an unintended consequence of the Bill as supply pressures increased, caused by panicking landlords exiting the sector.
More social homes would help remove rent pressures and mean failing PRS properties would be weeded out, she said.
Wallace also suggested implementing the legislation over time, so new tenancies immediately had to comply with revised terms, but existing tenancies had a 12-month period or up until the end of their fixed term. She added: “Some landlords will see…things aren’t so bad when this Bill comes in when it’s actually in practise and they see it working. I think those landlords could then decide ‘actually we’ll stay in the market’.”
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