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Did the general election just kill our housing bills?
Inside Housing columnist Jules Birch analyses the election’s impact on the Renters (Reform) Bill and Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill
Jules Birch is an award-winning blogger who writes exclusive articles for Inside Housing
And they’re off – but as the election campaign begins, it’s easy to lose sight of what could get left at the starting gate.
An immediate consequence of prime minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to go for 4 July rather than an autumn election is that two of the most important pieces of housing legislation in years look like they will run out of parliamentary time.
The Renters (Reform) Bill and Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill have passed all their stages in the Commons and most of them in the Lords.
In theory they could still be passed in stripped-down form as part of the wash-up process before parliament is dissolved on Friday, provided both parties agree. However, as I’m writing this, neither is currently listed in Lords business for today or tomorrow, so the signs are not good.
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The first implements the pledge to abolish Section 21 no-fault evictions originally made by Theresa May in April 2019 when she was prime minister and which was included in the Conservative manifesto later that year.
Five years on, the pledge had already been watered down to appease backbench Tory MPs and would only cover existing tenancies when the courts are judged to be ready for it. Now it looks like it may not even cover new tenancies and opponents have got their way
Other elements of the bill, such as making blanket bans on benefits claimants unlawful, will also be lost. As will a Decent Homes Standard for the private rented sector that has long been promised, but still not been published.
“Five years on, the pledge to abolish Section 21 no-fault evictions had already been watered down to appease backbench Tory MPs”
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill delivers a pledge first made even longer ago (January 2018) to ban the sale of new-build leasehold houses, although it ducks 2019 manifesto commitments to end the sale of new leasehold homes (flats as well as houses) and to restrict ground rents on existing homes to a peppercorn.
A consultation on ground rents that is believed to propose a cap of £250 has still not been published, let alone made part of the bill.
Important provisions filling gaps in the Building Safety Act will also be lost if the bill runs out of time, including a replacement regime for dealing with insolvent developers and orphaned buildings, and a potential opportunity to strengthen protection for non-qualifying leaseholders.
Both pieces of legislation were close to the final hurdle in the Lords: a date had yet to be set for the committee stage of the Renters (Reform) Bill, but the report stage and third reading of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill were scheduled for 5 June.
Both main parties support the basic principles of the two bills so, in theory, they could be reintroduced quickly in the next parliament if they run out of time.
A new Conservative government would be a huge shock, but cannot be ruled out completely. However, it would almost certainly have a smaller majority and be even more vulnerable to opposition from property interests.
Labour has already pledged to complete both sets of reforms without the wriggle room introduced by the Tories.
“With the wait for reform seemingly set to continue, and Labour promising action to help both groups, that seems almost guaranteed to lose the Tories what little support they have left among young renters and home owners”
Deputy leader Angela Rayner promised in a speech on Tuesday that “Labour will ban no-fault evictions, no ifs no buts” and “we’ll end the mediaeval leasehold system, with root and branch reform”.
In April, the party dropped a pledge to introduce legislation to abolish leasehold within its first 100 days in government, but it is unclear whether a complete loss of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill would give this new urgency.
Away from the policy issues, the politics of this looks baffling from a Conservative perspective.
If both bills are lost, the Conservatives will have broken their manifesto promises to 4.8 million leaseholders and 4.9 million private renters in England (those figures are for households and there will be many more voters living in them).
With the wait for reform seemingly set to continue, and Labour promising action to help both groups, that seems almost guaranteed to lose the Tories what little support they have left among young renters and home owners.
That’s quite an incentive for government business managers to find a way to salvage something before parliament is dissolved, but time is running out.
As Mr Sunak put it yesterday when he called the election: “The choice facing our country is: do we stick with the plan that is starting to deliver the long-term change that our country needs, or do we go back to square one?”
He’s not sticking with the plan, and unless something happens soon, it looks very much as though it is he who is taking us right back to square one.
Jules Birch, columnist, Inside Housing
