'I certainly won’t shed a tear if the scales of England’s housing system […] start to tip back towards the one in five of us who rent our home.'

Tom Darling is the director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition.

New regulations for private renters moved one step closer last Tuesday (4 February) when the
Renters’ Rights Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords.

This is great news for renters. But as always happens when the government is passing a major set of
reforms, there is a backlash from those with an interest in maintaining a system they have done well
out of.

In this instance, Conservative peers and landlords are claiming that the long-overdue reforms
will “drive landlords from the market”.

Their argument is that this will mean less supply of rented housing, which in turn will mean higher rents for tenants.

The recent intervention follows years of similar claims in the media throughout the bill’s earlier
stages last year, and during the faltering progress of the last government’s Renters (Reform) Bill.

Indeed, anyone familiar with housing policy will have heard this refrain before – it is essentially all
landlords’ representative groups say.

Similar arguments were put forward in response to buy-to-let tax changes, the letting fees ban and cap on deposits brought in by Theresa May, and her pledge to end section 21 no fault evictions in 2019. I could go on.

It’s a rather cunning sleight of hand. Those lobbying for landlords realised some time ago that there
is little public sympathy for people who own multiple homes and charge people to live in them, so
instead of focusing on the plight of landlords they warn of potential harm to tenants.

The idea that less supply of rented homes is bad has an intuitive power. It fits neatly with most
people’s understanding of supply and demand.

But the important thing to understand is that the rental market isn’t like other markets – it is part of a housing system that includes other tenures like owner occupiers and social housing.

Indeed, England’s private rented sector has roughly doubled in size in the last 20 years.

There are more than twice as many households renting in England as in 2000, yet despite the expansion in ‘supply’ of rented homes, rental affordability is the worst it’s ever been, with nearly two thirds of working renters struggling to afford their rent, and record homelessness, driven as well by section 21 evictions.

Meanwhile, all the ‘investment’ we have seen from buy-to-let landlords has not significantly
improved the quality of rented homes either.

Renters face far worse quality homes than owners or social renters, with about one in 10 living in homes with a category 1 hazard, which pose the most serious risks to human health.

The growth in the number of rented homes can be tracked back to the 1980s. Margaret Thatcher’s
Housing Acts removed tenant protections and introduced the right to buy, and eventually ‘no fault’
section 21 evictions came into force.

Since then England has been observing an experiment in leaving private rented housing to a very lightly regulated free market.

A quarter of our social housing stock has been lost, while the existence of section 21 and generous
tax treatment of buy-to-let mortgages has made it very attractive to become a private landlord.

All of this coupled with meagre expansion of overall housing has led to soaring house prices, leaving
many would-be homebuyers priced out completely.

The result of this failed experiment is vast numbers of people who are privately renting not by
choice, but by necessity – many want to be homeowners but cannot afford to buy; many on lower
incomes or unable to work would rather be in social housing but face impossibly long waiting lists.

In this context, we need to ask ourselves, would it be so bad if the private rented sector wasn’t so
big? Consider, for a moment, that landlords did follow through on their threats to sell up.

These homes are bricks and mortar. They don’t vanish when sold. Some houses would be bought by
landlords (possibly larger and more professional landlords willing to comply with government
regulations); others would be bought by first time buyers, particularly if enough landlords sold to
push house prices down – resulting in large numbers of people swapping renting for home
ownership.

More homes could – and should – be bought by councils and housing associations to provide
desperately needed social housing, bringing down council waiting lists and costs and providing
people with a secure home.

Evidence suggests both of these have happened in Scotland since the recent rental reforms there –
more social housing and home ownership, and more properties overall despite a slight decline in
numbers of landlords.

In short, a reduction in the number of landlords could be an opportunity for many of the people currently trapped in private renting to escape – and to help create a better regulated, more professional renting system.

And by the way, that’s not to say this will actually happen. Despite the endless supposition that a
landlords exodus is underway, and has been underway for some time, the size of the private rented
sector has remained relatively consistent in recent years – statistics suggest it has even grown
slightly.

One landlord lobbyist let the cat out the bag during an industry webinar when he said: “Actually the truth is that while some landlords are leaving the sector, this sector is actually still increasing. That’s not terribly helpful to our argument to be honest with you.”

Amidst the endless scare stories, it’s worth being clear that the changes in the Renters’ Rights Bill are
vital.

Ending section 21 and introducing secure, indefinite tenancies will give renters more security in
their homes – they will be able to complain about disrepair or damp without fear of eviction.

Exploitative practices like bidding wars and extortionate demands for large sums of rent up front are
being banned.

Landlords will no longer be able to discriminate against renters with children or in receipt of
benefits, and will have to register on a public database. Renters will be better able to hold landlords
to account over disrepair, with a legal requirement for them to act in cases of serious damp or
mould.

These measures, finally close at hand after years of campaigning by renters groups, are long
overdue. They are worthy and important in and of themselves, irrespective of what happens to the
number and proportion of privately rented homes.

And if, as it happens, some landlords are no longer viable under the new, reformed system, then in
my view they weren’t fit to provide housing in the first place.

I certainly won’t shed a tear if the scales of England’s housing system – which for so long have been weighted towards landlords – start to tip back towards the one in five of us who rent our home.

The Renters’ Reform Coalition is a campaign group which comprises 21 organisations supporting and representing private renters. It includes homelessness and housing charities such as Shelter and Crisis, campaigners Generation Rent, as well as tenant union groups like ACORN. 

Comments are closed.