Current housing minister Brandon Lewis took a swipe at selective licensing schemes such as the one in Newham – calling them “a tax on tenants”.
The attack came in a series of announcements yesterday in which Lewis focused heavily on the private rented sector, saying the Government would “work with it, not against it”.
He dismissed the idea of rent controls, saying they were just plain wrong.
He said: “Rent control simply does not work. It leads to fewer properties on the market and higher rents.
“It’s a tax that’s passed on to tenants.”
Lewis launched a new model tenancy agreement which will last for up to three years – if tenants want it.
Lewis, who replaced his immediate predecessor Kris Hopkins as the main speaker at the Resi conference, said that tenants should not be “dictated to” over the length of the agreement.
Lewis also announced a new code for the private rented sector (see previous story), called on local councils to get behind Build to Rent, and revealed that 2,000 new private rental homes would be delivered in Liverpool, Durham and London through Build to Rent funding deals.
He declined to be drawn on new building numbers, saying he was not going to set “silly artificial” housing targets.
Lewis did, however, say that building on the Green Belt was entirely a matter for local councils to decide.
He also hinted that both smaller developments and private rental schemes could be freed from onerous Section 106 agreements, saying that an announcement will be made in the next few weeks.
In another hint, Lewis also suggested that planning restrictions would be eased on converting shops to homes – as they have been on the conversion of offices.
Also announced yesterday was the proposed outlawing of so-called retaliatory evictions – when tenants are told to quit after they have reported a repair issue.
The Government will be supporting legislation promoted by Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather.
The move was welcomed by Shelter but the Residential Landlords Association said that it would have unintended consequences. Under the proposals, landlords would not be able to evict any tenant who had asked for a repair within the last six months.
RLA chairman Alan Ward said the proposal would make it “ever easier for nightmare tenants to hold up eviction proceedings”.
Comments (2)
Very pleased to see that the Minister is condemning selective HMO licensing. In my opinion, they are not only a tax on tenants, but on landlords too. They are a very lazy way for the Council to meet its obligations. There is a vast difference between a shared house HMO, where typically a small group of friends share and live in the home exactly as a 'family' would; and a bedsit style HMO. The LACORS Fire Safety Guide describes this well:
35.1 There is no legal definition of a ‘shared house’ and so
this term can sometimes cause confusion. Whilst shared
houses fall within the legal definition of an HMO (see
Appendix 1, paragraph A.32) and will be licensable
where licensing criteria are met, it is recognised that
they can often present a lower fire risk than traditional
bedsit-type HMOs due to their characteristics.
35.2 For the purposes of this guidance, shared houses
are described as HMOs where the whole property
has been rented out by an identifiable group of
sharers such as students, work colleagues or friends
as joint tenants. Each occupant normally has their
own bedroom but they share the kitchen, dining
facilities, bathroom, WC, living room and all other
parts of the house. All the tenants will have exclusive
legal possession and control of all parts of the house,
including all the bedrooms. There is normally a
significant degree of social interaction between the
occupants and they will, in the main, have rented out
the house as one group. There is a single joint tenancy
agreement. In summary, the group will possess many
of the characteristics of a single family household,
although the property is still technically an HMO as
the occupants are not all related.
Did I read that right? A tenant reports a repair, we have it promptly attended to, but now we cannot serve a notice requiring possession for at least the next 6 months – even if the tenancy permits it otherwise? And so the astute tenant who wants to make sure he can remain in the property for as long as he wishes simply ensures that he reports at least one item of repair (genuine or otherwise) at least once in every 6 months. Can't be, I must have read it wrong.