Renters' Reform Coalition analysis found that one in three peers scheduled to speak in the debate were landlords themselves
Renter advocacy groups have accused Conservative peers of “a staggering u-turn” after they tabled amendments to the Renters’ Rights Bill.
On Wednesday, Conservative housing lead in the Lords, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, tabled amendments which campaigners have said would “completely wreck” the legislation.
The proposed amendments included keeping fixed term tenancies and retaining ‘no fault’ (section 21) evictions for the 85% of landlords who let out five properties or less.
The Renters’ Reform Coalition, made up of 21 organisations that represent renters’ rights, has pointed out that in February 2023, Baroness Scott said that scrapping section 21 “will give security of tenure to millions of tenants, empowering them to challenge poor practice and unfair rent increases”.
At the time, Scott was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and abolishing section 21 was a Conservative manifesto pledge.
This week, the coalition of renters’ rights groups has accused Scott of backtracking on her stance.
Speaking in the Lords’ debate on Renters’ Rights Bill on Wednesday, Scott said: “Many felt that the measures introduced by the [Renters (Reform)] Bill went too far in favour of tenants and too far against landlords in a way that would harm the rental market, and I have sympathy with that.”
Baroness Scott also said: “The Renters’ Rights Bill is counterproductive. While the Government may have good intentions, they will drive landlords from the market—reducing choice and putting up rent for the tenants they seek to protect”.
The Renters’ Reform Coalition also claimed that Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch, who previously served under Michael Gove in the Ministry for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities—which developed the last government’s Renters (Reform) Bill— “was privately opposed to the legislation”, after she said: “We tried to make it [The Renters (Reform) Bill] work, and we couldn’t.”
Tom Darling, Director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “It is galling to watch politicians, who supported abolishing no-fault evictions for 5 years and failed to deliver, now perform this staggering u-turn on renters’ rights.
“Many of the amendments to the Renters’ Rights Bill now tabled by Conservative peers, such as keeping fixed term tenancies, and keeping section 21 for most landlords, would completely wreck the legislation, and were specifically rejected by their frontbench when in power.
“What’s more, we are treated to the incredible suggestion that they were secretly against the previous government’s similar reforms the whole time. If that was the case, why didn’t they resign?”
Analysis by the Renters’ Reform Coalition also found that one in three peers scheduled to speak in the Lords’ debate on the Renters’ Rights Bill were landlords, compared to one in 25 in the general population.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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