Sean Hooker: The eagle has landed - and renter's reform is (nearly) ready to take flight

You know how some weeks, everything seems to happen at once? Well, that was exactly what happened to me the week of the "Fairer Private Rented Sector" white paper's release, after so many false dawns. I had been given the heads up that the government was looking to release the paper in June.

While I pencilled in the official end of spring as the drop dead date for the government to fulfil their promise, I was expecting further slippage when Minister Eddie Hughes told parliament that the paper was “coming soon” but gave no commitment to a date.

This said, I wasn't resting on my laurels and had been invited by the Portsmouth & District Private Landlords Association to address their AGM and talk about the possible changes. A pleasant Monday afternoon drive to the south coast is not a bad way to start the week. Little did I know that this was the lull before the storm.

The one thing about change is that it stimulates a whole gamut of reactions, and uncertainty attracts even more extreme emotions. A session that was scheduled for half an hour pushed over the hour mark as I tried to second guess the mind of the government, albeit from an informed speculative perspective.

Pre-white paper PRS insights in Portsmouth

They are a good bunch in Portsmouth but are faced with a set of challenges that, whilst not unique, do show the diversity of the private rented sector (PRS). The naval city, home to a university, also has a high deprivation index with many low-income tenants relying on benefits.

With the city essentially squeezed into the most densely populated island in the country, the need for housing is acute and the association works closely with the local council to help solve the many problems faced by landlords, tenants and letting agents alike.

The city set up a mediation service during the pandemic, and the pilot has been expanded to 2023. They are however in the midst of a consultation by the council on whether to extend the HMO licensing in the city. The prospect of further legislative changes, this time from the national government, was not a particularly welcome message to deliver.

The week of the announcement

I could not give the details on the proposals as the white paper was still to be announced, so back to the day job and to prepare for my next jaunt, this time to Bristol to attend the Chartered Trading Standard Institute Conference, where, in conjunction with the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agent Team (NTSELAT), there was an "enforcement in the private rented sector" day for trading standards and environmental health officers, local authorities, and property agents.

I was invited to be on a panel on upfront material information on property portals and a second one on how the redress schemes work with the authorities. Little did I know how timely the trip would turn out to be.

Scheduled for the last day of the conference, I had decided to go up the day before and stay over for an early start the next day, train booked for Thursday.

Wednesday early morning arrived and a text from a colleague: "Have you seen the Daily Mail?" I clicked on the link to find Minister Gove was set to announce that tenants would get the right to keep pets in their property and landlords could not refuse to let to pet owners.

Pets in lets: The white paper vanguard

This proposal was one that I was familiar with, having been involved with forty-three other organisations in supporting a campaign led by Jennifer Berezai to allow landlords to ask tenants to provide an insurance policy to protect their property from pet damage.

Despite the government stating they were not prepared to do anything further than add a couple of clauses to the model tenancy agreement, they had changed their minds. A surprise U-turn and victory for common sense. However, a bigger surprise was also hinted at - the white paper was due to be published the next day.

By late evening, I had got my hands on the embargoed press release outlining the headlines, no copy of the white paper though. This was due to be published shortly before a ministerial announcement in the House of Commons, after which the document would be available to the public.

Oh, I am travelling - when is the announcement? In the morning, some time after 10.30am, great - however, I did not want to be stuck on the Elizabeth Line when the announcement was made. Does the new line have WiFi? I can watch Parliament TV on my phone. Sorted.

So, there I am sitting like an abandoned bear at Paddington Station, minus a marmalade sandwich, listening to, not Minister Gove but Minister Eddie Hughes, who to be fair had done all the heavy lifting on the paper. Twenty minutes later a copy of the white paper was downloaded, and my train journey reading was in the bag.

A webinar quickly organised

Wind back twenty-four hours and an e-mail had arrived from my good friends at Goodlord.

"We heard the white paper is due out tomorrow. If so, would you be up to do a webinar on what it all means?"

"Yes of course."

The session was hurriedly pencilled in for Monday morning. Bang goes my weekend with getting my head around the 82 page report minus the pictures!

Despite the short notice, the webinar got a huge number of people signed up and over four hundred attended live, which is fantastic for a Monday morning. There were over 80 questions and of course we overran by twenty minutes trying to answer them all.

Here's the full synopsis of the session - or you can still catch the webinar on-demand or listen to the podcast.

Changing enforcement

I want to also share with you a few snippets from the CTSI conference, which became a little more lively following the announcement and publication of the white paper.

The conference and white paper coincided with the publication of an official report from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities based on research undertaken by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University, that looked at enforcement of the private rented sector by local authorities.

I have looked at this area in a previous Goodlord blog, but this was poignant as it evidently influenced the government’s thinking when it came to the section on enforcement and proposals for property portal, which will act as a de facto register of rental properties and landlords.

Again, this report would have been useful to have had for when I was in Portsmouth as it is quite positive overall about the impact of local licensing but acknowledged more evidence was needed to measure the effectiveness of schemes on standards.

Resources for local authorities

The lack of resources available to local authorities was a common theme in both of the reports. Bristol City Council only had 2.6 people investigating and prosecuting illegal evictions in a city of half a million people - yet, they felt lucky to have such a large resource compared to other authorities.

I was interested to learn why so few authorities were registering landlords and letting agents on the Rogue Database: it's limited in what offences can be listed and difficult to do so, plus, as the list is not open to the public, most authorities don't bother.

It was reassuring therefore to have read that the white paper has pledged to make it public and to include all civil offences for which a landlord or letting agent has been guilty.

Expert reactions to the white paper

Again, thanks to the white paper, the session at the conference earmarked for a government update, took on a new significance. Minister Eddie Hughes had recorded a video for the conference pledging to work with the enforcement sector to ensure they had the powers and resources to raise standards in housing. It was then down to a senior civil servant to answer the burning questions on the white paper.

This was Grace Duffy, who I work very closely with, as her team are responsible for the redress schemes. This did not stop me asking a difficult question: what incentives were available to help councils close down poor standard properties and drive out bad landlords, when the tenants affected often end up on their housing waiting list? Grace pointed out that she disliked the term "rogue" as it implied a rakish and low-level miscreant when in fact these are hardened criminals, and the full weight of the law should be applied to them.

Besides, she added, with a wry smile, that too often the term “rogue” evaded the spell check and came out “rouge” in the government’s papers! It reminded me of when one of my staff insisted on answering the phone as the property “red dress” scheme. I therefore spare Grace her blushes.

It was also good to pick the brains of Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy at Propertymark, so freshly after the publication of the white paper. Tim and his team will have their work cut out over the coming months. However, overall, the eminent trade body is generally happy with the direction of travel and will be working with the government to make these proposals work. I also caught up with Laura Barker of The Property Ombudsman.

We both, along with Tim and the NTSELAT, were of the view that a lot of the enforcement issues could be improved by better training, education and support on the powers that are already in place and those that are coming in. Grace heard clearly that money would also be needed and promised to look at the fines and hold perpetrators to account for the costs of enforcing. She also acknowledged that more funding would need to be identified.

So ended a long and eventful week and the start of a historical period for the sector. Where exactly it will all end is still to be seen and certainly over the next few months the map will be set. Then we begin the longer journey to legislation and implementation.

People should not panic or make rash decisions on their future as there is still time to modify things and plenty of time to adapt, change, and prepare - as the t-shirt Goodlord produced last year, we should "Keep Calm and Carry on Letting".

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