?Today (2 February 2022), the Government unveiled its much-anticipated Levelling Up White Paper which has confirmed some big changes on the horizon for the private rented sector, and in particular landlords. However, despite running to 332 pages, the document is light on detail and points to a further White Paper which will be published in the spring focusing primarily on the Private Rented Sector.
It states: “To deliver our mission to improve housing conditions, we will introduce new legislation to improve the quality and regulation of social housing, give residents performance information so that they can hold their landlord to account and ensure that when residents make a complaint, landlords take quick and effective action to put things right. And we will publish a landmark White Paper in the spring to consult on introducing a legally binding Decent Homes Standard in the Private Rented Sector for the first time ever, explore a National Landlord Register and bring forward other measures to reset the relationship between landlords and tenants, including through ending section 21 “no fault evictions”.
Commenting on the proposed changes Sherrelle Collman, Managing Director of Caridon Landlord Solutions, says:
“Further confirmation of the abolition of Section 21 is not surprising, but it is a little disappointing that there is still not more detail on how or when such changes will be made. As we have said before, there needs to be significant reform to the whole eviction process, including substantial improvement to Section 8, before Section 21 can be removed. If landlords are not given fair opportunity to request their properties back, I believe the Government risks a mass exodus of landlords from the PRS, which will ultimately be to the detriment of tenants. We await further detail in the spring.
“In terms of the implementation of a national ‘decent homes standard’ and a national landlord register, these only serve to benefit responsible landlords and help push out those who do not provide good quality accommodation. Anything which helps raise standards and elevate professional landlords away from being affiliated with unfair and sometimes unlawful practice is positive.”
To read the full Levelling Up White Paper – CLICK HERE