Renters’ Rights Bill

My Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Colleagues and I support this legislation and have consistently campaigned for the abolition of Section 21, no-fault evictions, so we welcome the Bill’s commitment to achieving this. While we are pushing the Government to strengthen areas of the Bill, such as applying the decent home standard, we do welcome the elements of the Bill which will help make the rented sector more secure for both tenants and landlords.

The previous Conservative Government neglected renters. Their broken promise on no-fault evictions was shameful. We support private landlords who pride themselves on setting out to improve higher standards in rented housing, to ensure everyone has a safe and secure home to live in. We have called on the Government to invest more in insulating homes to improve their energy efficiency and have called for renters to be given a fairer deal by ensuring landlords can only evict tenants in specific circumstances, such as failure to pay rent or damaging the property.

Indeed, I have consistently opposed policies that adversely affect vulnerable families, such as the ‘bedroom tax’, when I led a parliamentary campaign and worked with campaign groups such as the National Housing Federation to call for its abolition. I have also supported initiatives to improve housing standards and tenant rights. I will continue to work alongside organisations like Shelter to push for these essential reforms.