PRIVATE RENTERS : Rent Controls, Secure Tenancies & Fit for Habitation
Labour Manifesto 2017:
We will end insecurity for private renters by introducing controls on rent rises, more secure tenancies, landlord licensing and new consumer rights for renters.
Soaring rents are a real problem leading to more families living in temporary accommodation, more people sleeping rough, and many not having enough money to save up for a deposit or for a rainy day.
Labour will make new three-year tenancies the norm, with an inflation cap on rent rises. Given the particular pressures in London we will look at giving the Mayor the power to give renters in London additional security. We will legislate to ban letting agency fees for tenants.
We will also empower tenants to call time on bad landlords by giving renters new consumer rights. Renters are spending 9.6 billion a year on homes that the government classes as non-decent’. Around a quarter of this is paid by housing benefit. A Labour government would introduce new legal minimum standards to ensure properties are fit for human habitation’ and empower tenants to take action if their rented homes are sub-standard.
We will reverse the cruel decision to abolish housing benefit for 18 to 21- year-olds, which risks putting even more vulnerable young people on our streets.
Rent Controls, Secure Tenancies & Fit for Human Habitation
- Regulating private rents by linking them to measures that can determine whether they are affordable (e.g. average earnings).
- Nationally registering private landlords and licensing them locally – driving up standards of rental properties.
- Ensuring tenants rights are respected and ensuring homes suitable for human habitation (minimum safety standards, free of damp and pests and so on).
- Redirecting some of the £14 billion tax relief offered to private landlords to help struggling tenants (e.g. deposit problem).
- Empowering tenants in housing associations through co-operative models of local management.
- Banning rip-off letting fees, saving renters money.
- Introducing a ceiling on excessive rent rises and make stable three-year tenancies the rule, not the exception.
