Private tenants will remain in fear of losing their homes, a charity has said, after the Government confirmed it has no definite timeline for a ban on no-fault evictions.
The long-awaited abolition of section 21, where a landlord can evict a tenant without providing any reason, will not come in until court reforms and stronger possession grounds for landlords are in place, the Government said on Tuesday.
As the King’s Speech saw the Renters Reform Bill confirmed to return for the next parliamentary session, the Government said it is keeping its manifesto pledge to abolish no-fault evictions.
We’ve already seen the Government play politics with the Renters (Reform) Bill and give in to a small minority of landlords on its own backbench who want to see it kicked into the long grass— Polly Neate, Shelter
It said the Bill is part of the plan to support 11 million private tenants and 2.3 million landlords in England.
Delivering the speech to Parliament, the King said: “Renters will benefit from stronger security of tenure and better value, while landlords will benefit from reforms to provide certainty that they can regain their properties when needed.”
But housing and homelessness charity Shelter accused the Government of having given in to Conservative backbenchers, who it said want to see the Bill “kicked into the long grass”.
Some Tory MPs have previously voiced their opposition to the Bill, saying it would add to “the burden” on landlords.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “In the last King’s Speech before a general election, the Government has failed to grasp the scale of the housing emergency.
“Decades of inaction has left us with runaway rents, rising evictions and record levels of homelessness and ministers are blaming everyone but themselves.
“We’ve already seen the Government play politics with the Renters (Reform) Bill and give in to a small minority of landlords on its own backbench who want to see it kicked into the long grass.
“Until the Bill is passed and implemented, 11 million private renters will remain living in constant fear of being evicted from their home without cause.”
She repeated calls for more social homes to be built, more affordable private renting, and for the Chancellor to unfreeze housing benefit in the upcoming Autumn Statement later this month.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social change organisation, said the “open-ended delay to ending no-fault evictions means renters will continue to face unfair, unexpected evictions”.
Darren Baxter, the organisation’s principal policy adviser, called for “real action, not rhetoric, to tackle rising levels of severe hardship” in both the Autumn Statement and from all parties in the run-up to a general election.
The Government said section 21 will not be banned until landlords’ grounds for possession are strengthened, giving examples of wanting to sell the property, tenants’ repeated serious rent arrears and expanding grounds for when close family members want to move in to the property.
Landlords will be able to evict tenants in as little as two weeks if they breach their tenancy agreement or damage the property, it added.
Renters will benefit from stronger security of tenure and better value, while landlords will benefit from reforms to provide certainty that they can regain their properties when needed— The King's Speech
Alongside the Bill, the Government said it is working to speed up the court process around repossession of properties, and said both landlords and tenants will be engaged in the process to ensure the system is as straightforward and efficient as possible.
The Government said stronger powers to evict anti-social tenants will be introduced under the Bill, as it pledged to broaden the criteria for what are considered disruptive and harmful activities.
It said the Bill will see the delay between a landlord serving notice for eviction due to anti-social behaviour and being able to make a claim in court halved.
It promised to bring forward amendments to the Bill including protections for the student market, and making it illegal to have blanket bans on tenants who are on benefits or have children.
The Government said the latter will protect against discrimination, while leaving landlords with the final say on who they rent to.
Labour has vowed it would ban no-fault evictions if the party takes power after the next election.
Deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Ministers are using their own failure to kick their long-promised rental reforms into the long grass to ward off a Tory backbench rebellion.
“This indefinite delay to a ban on no-fault evictions comes at a heavy price for renters who have been let down by this Government for far too long already.
“Tens of thousands more families who the Government promised to protect now face the prospect of being threatened with homelessness or kicked out of their homes by bailiffs.”
