The Renters’ Rights Bill: the practical implications for enforcement
Ian Andrews looks at efforts to ensure intelligence-based working, as well as collaborative working, between different professionals becomes embedded before the Renters’ Rights Bill comes into force.
The Renters’ Rights Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, is going to radically change the rental and enforcement landscape in England. New duties and powers will be given to local authorities by way of amendments to the Housing Act 1988, but these will arrive at a time when there remains an acute shortage of qualified staff and a continued strain on already hard-pressed budgets.
One of the key provisions, and a clear political priority, is not all that new. An announcement about ending Section 21 evictions under the Housing Act 1988 (termed “no-fault” evictions”) was made in the Queen’s speech in 2022, but now practitioners have details to consider in advance of what could be a short implementation timetable. Some would deem this provision vital at a time when rental prices are creating social divides. In contrast, the requirement for landlords to register property details onto a new online Private Rental Sector database will take longer to come to fruition (Chapter 3 of the Bill). The new database aims to provide greater transparency for tenants as well as providing a platform through which landlords can access relevant guidance. The documents uploaded will only be as reliable as the scrutiny that goes alongside the new platform, however.
A provision found in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, known as “Awaab’s Law”, will be applied to private rented properties through the Bill. This will require landlords to respond within a fixed timeframe to tenants’ concerns. The new enforcement powers and larger penalties which are being promised may result in some tenants seeing swifter resolution of issues when landlords fail to meet their duties, but only if local authorities have the staff to physically investigate in the first instance. A number of organisations that provided written evidence at Committee Stage highlighted such issues, but the shape of the Government’s response is yet to be seen. Stronger enforcement powers can be found in clauses 111 and 112 of the Bill: an authorised officer will be able to require the provision of information from “any person” when they suspect an offence has been committed. There is also scope to create a lead enforcement authority (clause 108) in the interests of consistency.
To create valuable collaboration in this space, and to address some of the potential challenges that lie ahead under the Bill, a unique project has been running using funding provided by the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund. Operation Jigsaw has been focusing on enhancing joint-working across regions alongside exploring training solutions. Hosted by Powys County Council, the initiative has employed a team of experienced investigators and managers to work at a regional level to establish what opportunities there are to set up stronger networks.
“The origin of the project comes from the roll out of training we delivered as a national team back before the Covid-19 pandemic,” explains Alison Farrar, project lead for the National Trading Standards team based in Powys. “We wanted to create structures in each of the regions to bring people together from different agencies.”
Operation Jigsaw is about putting together the different agencies that regulate aspects of the landlord and tenant relationship, so intelligence sharing is a core element of the project. As a concept, it is becoming more common within Environmental Health disciplines, having become embedded within Trading Standards over the past 20 years. Given the Bill’s contents, data sharing is going to be even more key going forward, and data protection practitioners are likely to be asked to be more flexible than they may have been hitherto.
To support delivery of the Renters’ Right’s Bill, the team recently ran an online survey and more than 250 LA officers responded. Overall, more than 85% of responders were concerned about increases in enforcement demand. Unsurprisingly, more than 74% called for up-front funding to meet these demands. As regards the introduction of “Awaab’s Law”, which concerns duties around damp and mould, more than 60% of responders highlighted that there would need to be greater capacity within the criminal court system going forward. New data reporting duties for local authorities, to enable MHCLG to build up a national data set, were also a key concern given the likely upturn in tenant complaints. These results highlight that, when the Bill comes into force, there will need to be continual dialogue between policy makers and officers, coupled with a real appreciation of the reality for tenants.
One of the project’s successes is the increase in usage of a national intelligence database (IDB), and it is something the team would like to see continue. A range of webinars have been delivered to promote intelligence sharing as a common element to day-to-day work, to share good practice, and highlight the roles of other regulators. The team’s work has also included organising in-person events within each region. Environmental Health staff can be found in different departments in local authorities, so traversing traditional boundaries and bringing together people who talk the same professional language at a time of change is a real success.
The nature of projects delivered with short-term funding is that they have a definite end point, and for Operation Jigsaw that is February 2025. The connections that have been built, and the awareness that has been raised, will be beneficial going forward, and they highlight the benefits of co-ordination at a national level going forward, something it is hoped will underpin the Bill as it goes forward.
Ian Andrews is Regional Lead: London for Operation Jigsaw.
