The Housing and Planning Bill is due to get its third reading in the House of Commons today.

The Bill will then go to the House of Lords on a date to be confirmed where it will be formally introduced in a first reading, proceed to its second reading, followed by the committee stage and a third reading.

The Residential Landlords Association has issued a briefing paper to peers, calling for several amendments.

In particular, the RLA wants local authorities to be compelled to collect information on Council Tax forms by which tenants would identify their landlords.

The RLA says: “At present, local authorities have the right to ask for details of a property’s landlord to assist with the collection of Council Tax but very few use the power.

“The RLA believes local authorities should now be compelled to collect such information on Council Tax registration forms for use in the enforcement of regulations affecting the sector.

“Getting tenants to identify landlords will mean that criminals will find it harder to hide from local authority enforcement officers.”

The RLA is also calling for an amendment making it easier for landlords to offer longer tenancies.

It says that in London, a major problem is that leases in blocks of flats prohibit tenancies of more than a year. The RLA wants this amended so that landlords could grant sub-tenancies of up to a year.

A third amendment suggested by the RLA is that landlords who are included on the blacklist that the Bill seeks to introduce should not have their names on it permanently if they are prepared to undergo a period of education.

The RLA points out that the banning orders of landlords and agents are not permanent under the Bill’s provisions, and that this principle is applied to the planned blacklist.

Finally, the RLA is calling for tenancy deposit schemes to be modernised, so that the prescribed information can be provided to tenants electronically as well as on paper.