The Tories have broken a huge election promise they made in 2019
It is time for action, not their empty promises.
The Government has completely turned their backs on renters.
In 2019, they pledged to end the nightmare of no-fault evictions that make so many people homeless each year and leave countless more in a permanent state of insecurity, at the total mercy of their landlords.
Almost five years later, and renters are still waiting desperately for this Government to make good on its promise.
But new laws are urgently needed to rein in rogue landlords, who do nothing but line their pockets and rake in obscene profits, as their tenants live in old, cold, damp and cramped homes.
Depressingly, UK housing is the ‘worst value for money’ of any advanced economy, according to thinktank Resolution Foundation.
While the Tories in Westminster twiddle their thumbs and stall for time, our counterparts in the Scottish Government have actually been making progress.
The Scottish Greens have put a bold New Deal for Tenants before Parliament – a comprehensive bill aiming to give renters the rights they deserve.
This bill of sweeping reform will introduce a system of rent controls, restrict evictions, prevent homelessness with new public duties and give tenants basic rights, like being able to decorate their homes or keep pets.
But down in Westminster, the UK Government’s far less ambitious Renters Reform Bill has been gathering dust while renters across the country suffer.
This isn’t just a matter of broken promises, it’s a matter of basic decency. Since the disastrous Housing Act of 1988 unleashed chaos on our rental market by giving more power to landlords, rents have skyrocketed while tenant rights have been trampled into the ground.
And let’s not entertain for one second the nonsense coming from the right that lays the blame at the door of renters themselves. This crisis isn’t caused by millennials’ supposed love of avocado toast.
Take my own constituency of Brighton Pavilion in one of the most expensive cities in the UK. On average, renters are having to hand over a scandalous 56.9% of their wages just to pay their rent each month.
As wages have stagnated, wealthy landlords have been allowed to put their rents up and up, with many renters treated as nothing more than cash cows to be milked dry.
Just this week, we saw a shocking example after experts said landlords have been colluding with insurance firms to earn huge secret commissions that push up service charges for leaseholders and renters.
The whole disgusting system is rigged against people who don’t own property. And we now have a whole generation of people who not only can’t afford to buy a property, they can’t even afford to rent one either.
Last year, at the same time that house prices dropped, already crippling average rents went through the roof – growing by 9% at their fastest rate on record. Nine out of 10 homes for rent are now too expensive for families on housing benefit.
And the next few years are set to pile on the pain even further, with predictions rents will continue to soar by another 13% over the next three years.
It is no surprise that homelessness continues to rise at such an alarming pace – more than doubling since 2010. Far from ending rough sleeping over the course of this Parliament like they promised, this Tory Government has presided over a 50% surge in homelessness last year caused by no-fault evictions they could so easily have banned.
Nor is it just individuals and families who are being pushed to their financial breaking point. Councils in England – many on the verge of bankruptcy – had to cough up an eye-watering £1.7bn on temporary accommodation between April 2022 and March 2023.
Given the sheer scale of this national crisis – not to mention the huge enthusiasm for action among voters, and the need to deliver on their own manifesto – prioritising rent reform should have been a political no-brainer.
So why wasn’t this made a priority from day one? It would, after all, have commanded cross-party support and sailed through Parliament.
Last month, the reason behind the Tories’ abject failure to act became clear for all to see when a leaked letter to The Sun revealed exactly what was causing the holdup.
Behind the scenes, Housing Secretary Michael Gove has reportedly been negotiating dirty deals to win the approval of his own landlord backbenchers by selling renters down the river.
He has been further watering down a bill that was already long overdue and inadequate. Legislation that should have protected renters looks like it has been morphed into a win for landlords.
It is time for action, not their empty promises, delays and duplicitous backroom deals. As soon as Parliament returns next week, I will be laying a motion of my own in the House of Commons calling for far more ambition than is in their pathetic Renters Reform Bill for landlords.
We desperately need a Living Rent Commission to improve affordability in the private rented sector. We need a nationwide system of rent control. We need a massive programme of zero-carbon social housing.
And if the Tories won’t do anything about any of it, above all, then we need a general election now, so we can vote in MPs who will.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.