Latest news with #RentersRightsBill
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Darlington mum calls for rent controls after 'shock rise'
A single mother whose rent has increased by 20% is calling for a cap on how much it can be Chapman, 56, from Darlington, County Durham, was given a month's notice by her landlord when they increased her rent by £ Chapman said while she welcomed reforms in the Renters' Rights Bill currently going through Parliament, they did "nothing to stop shock rent rises" like her family was currently faced with.A government spokesperson said the bill would "empower tenants to tackle unreasonable rent hikes". "I just got so angry that the landlord can raise the rent whenever he wants and give me a month's notice," Ms Chapman said."I'm paying a lot more now and it's having a knock-on effect on everything else."I have a very low disposable income so it's really difficult, especially since everything else has gone up including gas and electricity."The Renters' Rights Bill seeks to introduce an end to no-fault evictions, stopping bidding wars for tenancies, helping tenants challenge unreasonable rent increases and preventing landlords from demanding more than a month's rent in advance from a new tenant. 'Full of damp and mould' Ms Chapman experienced extreme dampness in her previous home, which led her to being rushed to hospital with pneumonia, she said."We moved into the property and I've got asthma, so the damp started to creep in," she said."We didn't realise how bad until the mould was literally black."The landlord gave me a dehumidifier which literally did nothing."Luckily I was okay. I survived, but when I had to recover, I had to go back to the house, which was full of damp and mould."Ms Chapman hoped her new home, which she has been renting for eight years, would be better but she now feels she has suffered a "huge blow" to her launched a petition calling for a cap on rent increases, which has gained more than 45,000 signatures.A government spokesperson said: "Through our Renters' Rights Bill we are taking decisive action to transform the private renting sector for the better and empower tenants to tackle unreasonable rent hikes." Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour's war on landlords sends rental property supply to an all-time low
The rental market is experiencing a supply crisis as landlords sell up amid an increasingly hostile business environment, new data has revealed. The number of UK properties available to let has hit an all-time low of 284,000, tumbling 18pc in the year to March, according to analytics firm TwentyCi. The figure marks a 23pc fall compared to the number of lets available before the pandemic. A third of landlords are now looking to sell off some or all of their rental properties, according to the latest English Private Landlord Survey, while the number of respondents leaving the lettings industry altogether quadrupled from less than 20,000 to over 80,000. Among landlords planning to scale back operations or sell up entirely, 'recent legislative changes' was the most-selected reason for their plans (65.6pc). This is not surprising – in her first Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves raised stamp duty on second homes and buy-to-lets from 3pc to 5pc with immediate effect. In the first quarter of 2025, 15.6pc of properties newly for sale had been rented at some point during the past three years, up from just 9.3pc at the start of 2023, according to TwentyCi. Meanwhile, the Renters' Rights Bill, set to take effect in July, will ban no-fault evictions, fixed-term tenancies, bidding wars and mid-contract price hikes. Rental properties that fall short of energy efficiency standards are also set to be banned by 2030, with landlords facing an average bill of £10,000 to bring their properties up to code. Unfortunately for landlords, the bad news may not stop there. Labour MPs want to increase the amount of tax landlords pay on rental income, The Times reported last week. This move would help the Government raise money while keeping its promise to not raise taxes on 'working people' – with Sir Keir Starmer having previously suggested that landlords do not meet the definition. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) filings show average property income declared came to £16,700 in the 2022-23 financial year, the latest for which data is available, down 10.8pc since 2018 in real terms. 'The kind of fall [in the number of rental properties available] supports our long-held view that government policy is dissuading investment and driving landlords to look elsewhere for returns,' said Chris Norris, chief policy officer at the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA). 'There is an acute imbalance between the demand and supply of homes in this country, which is being exacerbated by successive governments' policies towards private renting.' Tenants are paying the price for an exodus of landlords from the market, which is pushing monthly rents to new highs. Average UK rents were 4.5pc higher in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the year before, according to Rightmove data. TwentyCi's data also revealed that almost half – 46pc – of available properties to let are listed at prices exceeding £1,500 per calendar month, with over 15pc requiring tenants to fork out more than £3,000 each month. Angharad Trueman, president of property professionals' body Propertymark, said: 'This continues to be an ongoing concern in regard to the unintended consequences of the Renters' Rights Bill as if this trend continues, supply levels will worsen and consequently, so will rent costs. 'Tenants, who the legislation is designed to help, will ultimately be left feeling the brunt of this national issue. We need urgent Government support to revitalise the market and encourage investment before it's too late.' A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: 'We do not recognise this data. Recent figures show that there has been an 18pc year-on-year increase in the number of available homes to rent, and the supply and demand balance is narrowing.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Single mother landed with 20% rent increase calls for rent controls
A single mother whose landlord has increased her rent by 20% is campaigning for a cap on how much landlords can raise rent in the UK. Bridget Chapman, 56, from Darlington in County Durham, who has been a private renter her entire adult life, was given just a month's notice by her landlord when they increased her rent by £100. A recent survey by campaign group Generation Rent revealed that 61% of renters said their landlord had asked them to pay a higher rent in the past 12 months with almost a quarter (24%) reporting an increase of over £100. Ms Chapman said that while she welcomes reforms in the Renters' Rights Bill going through Parliament, they do 'nothing to stop shock rent rises' like her family is currently faced with. The Renters' Rights Bill seeks to introduce an end to no-fault evictions, stopping bidding wars for tenancies, helping tenants challenge unreasonable rent increases and preventing landlords from demanding more than a month's rent in advance from a new tenant. 'I just got so angry that the landlord can raise the rent whenever he wants and give me a month's notice,' Ms Chapman told the PA news agency. 'I'm paying a lot more now and it's having a knock on effect on everything else. 'I'm a single parent, so even though my kids are now adults they're still young and I'm still supporting them. 'I have a very low disposable income so it's really difficult especially since everything else has gone up including gas and electricity.' Ms Chapman, who says she feels 'let down by the system' experienced extreme dampness in her previous home which led her to being rushed to hospital with pneumonia. 'We moved into the property and I've got asthma, so the damp started to creep in,' she said. 'We didn't realise how bad until the mould was literally black. 'The landlord gave me a dehumidifier which literally did nothing. 'Luckily I was okay. I survived, but when I had to recover, I had to go back to the house, which was full of damp and mould.' Ms Chapman hoped her new home which she has been renting for eight years would be better but she now feels she has suffered a 'huge blow' to her security. With rents in her local area being so high, she does not feel she can move to a more affordable option. Ms Chapman launched her petition which has gained over 45,000 signatures on Sunday, as she feels she 'can't do anything else'. 'Doing this petition is my way to make my voice heard,' she said. 'The Government firstly needs to cap rent increases. They also need to look at capping gas and electricity bills. 'Wages are not going up, so people are struggling even more, because they're on the same wage and they pay more money for everything else. 'You get people who are working hard, full-time, and they're having to go to food banks. I think that's so wrong.' Generation Rent says its research shows the 'most common' reason landlords put up rent is not higher costs, but rather to increase their revenue as local rents rise. Almost a third (31%) of landlords blamed higher market rents, while a further 7% stated that the increase was because of letting agent advice. 'This is indefensible. If renters are to finally feel secure in our own homes, we need protections from shock rent rises,' a Generation Rent spokesperson said. 'Private landlords should not be able to raise the rent higher than inflation or wages. The Government can and must act to change this.' A Government spokesperson said: 'Through our Renters' Rights Bill we are taking decisive action to transform the private renting sector for the better and empower tenants to tackle unreasonable rent hikes. 'Alongside this, as part of our Plan for Change we are putting more money in people's pockets by protecting payslips from higher taxes and increasing the minimum wage to deliver pay rises of up to £1,400 a year for millions of low-income workers.' You can read more about Ms Chapman's petition at:
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘Property is theft' dogma underlies the Labour Party's war on landlords
For those of a revolutionary bent during their student days a few decades ago, there were two indispensable adornments to the bedsit wall. One was a poster of Che Guevara, preferably the image taken by the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda. The other was a quotation from the works of a 19th-century French anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. It was Proudhon who, in answer to his own question 'What is property?' responded: 'Property is theft'. This thesis holds that privately owned property is a form of larceny because it deprives others of the right to access and use resources. You sometimes wonder whether there is a strand of Proudhonism running through our political masters given the war currently being waged on landlords. This began under the Conservatives with Michael Gove's leasehold reforms and is continuing with alacrity under the current government. The Renters' Rights Bill to be rammed through the House of Lords on Wednesday is a dog's breakfast masquerading as a socially benign measure that is likely to cause harm to the very people it is supposed to help. In the Committee Stage, a Tory amendment designed to ensure that the impact of the legislation on the housing market was routinely assessed before proceeding was rejected by the Government. Why on earth would you not want to consider the effects of a new measure, especially amid warnings that it could prove damaging? The Government says there is no evidence landlords are leaving the rental market yet it has happened in Scotland where these reforms were introduced several years ago. A survey by Paragon, a buy-to-let specialist, suggested a significant proportion of landlords are pulling out, put off by the demonisation they sense, uncertain rental yields, the abolition of Section 21 no-fault evictions, increasing regulation and the requirement to meet strict energy performance criteria by 2030. Lower interest rates may stop the exodus but why make matters worse with more legislation? The English Private Landlord Survey in 2024 reported that one third planned to decrease the size of their portfolio in the next two years. A reduction in supply when demand is so high will have obvious consequences on rents, placing added cost pressures on tenants, many of them young people who despair of ever saving enough money to buy their own home. Maybe ministers hope a glut of properties for sale will push down house prices, which seems to be the only rationale behind this policy. The reforms are especially problematic for student accommodation if landlords fear they cannot get rid of their tenants at the end of the college year. Ministers insist the aim is to achieve a level playing field between landlords and tenants; but if thousands of homes fall out of the market how will that help? In addition, the full impact has yet to be felt of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act which became law at the end of the last parliament. Its aim was to strengthen existing consumer rights and introduce new ones by making it cheaper to extend leases or buy a freehold and increase the standard lease extension term to 990 years – up from 50 years for houses and 90 years for flats – with ground rent reduced to zero on post-2022 leases. It also bans the sale of new leasehold houses other than in exceptional circumstances; gives leaseholders greater transparency over their service charges; and seeks to expand a system of 'commonhold' to replace leasehold in shared flats. It caps ground rents at 0.1 per cent of vacant possession value hitting the revenue streams of those owning the freeholds, often big estate managers. The landlord's right to recover costs is also being scrapped as is 'marriage value' – the additional premium which leaseholders previously had to pay to their freeholder when extending a lease with less than 80 years remaining. Freeholders are challenging the provisions of this Bill in the courts in July under Article 1 Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights governing the protection of property: 'Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions.' They want the provisions amounting to the expropriation of property without compensation declared incompatible with the Convention and struck down. Were that to happen, it would be interesting to see how Labour reconcile the judgment with their belief in the immutability of international law. Most of the Act has yet to be triggered, apart from a new right allowing leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold immediately upon purchasing a property, rather than wait two years. Proponents argue that ending leaseholds will empower people to take rightful control of their homes, money and lives. The Government now proposes further legislation to restrict the sale of new leasehold flats so that commonhold becomes the default tenure. But if they think that commonhold is the answer they have no real grasp of the difficulties involved. Estate managers charge a fee to run the property, effect repairs and the like. These tasks would need to be taken over by residential committees and all leaseholders would need to agree about what to spend money on, with some inevitably resisting the expense to the detriment of the building's fabric. Commonhold has been available as an option for many years but has hardly been taken up and yet is now to be the preferred form of tenure, like it or not. Ground rent which is charged to leaseholders is to be reduced effectively to nothing which freeholders say will cost them billions in lost revenues. The present value of this investment is around £31 billion, much of it locked up in pension funds. Everyone knows there are bad landlords who rook their tenants, charge too much for repairs or fail to do them at all. But the majority do their best so tarring them all with the same brush is foolish. By all means take action against abusers but don't jeopardise the entire system. There is a crisis in the rental market which the Left says is easily fixable. It is not that there is a shortage of homes but a surfeit of landlords. They want to beat them down, push them out and control rents. This is not just a war on landlords but on private property. Proudhon would have been thrilled.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Buy-to-let investment plunges to lowest level since before financial crisis
Buy-to-let investment has fallen to the lowest level since before the global financial crisis due to increased tax and regulatory burdens. Landlords bought just 10pc of homes on the market in the first quarter of this year, the lowest proportion since 2007, according to data from Hamptons. The figure reached a record-high of 16pc in 2015 before falling steadily to 11pc by 2024. Property experts blamed the decline on higher mortgage rates and increased stamp duty bills squeezing landlords' profits. George Osborne, the former Chancellor, first introduced a 3pc stamp duty surcharge for second homes in 2016. He also phased out tax relief buy-to-let landlords could claim on their mortgage interest. In her maiden budget, Rachel Reeves went further and raised stamp duty again for landlords again from 3pc to 5pc. Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: 'Buy-to-let investment is gradually grinding to a halt in some markets where higher purchase and mortgage costs take their toll.' Some 39pc of buy-to-let purchases up until May this year were in the Midlands or North England – as investors shunned the South East. Just 43pc of buy-to-let purchases this year were located in London, the East of England, South East or South West of England. This is down 10 percentage points from down from 53pc in 2015, before stricter tax and regulatory changes came into force. The average investor buying in the Midlands and North of England paid £150,480 for a buy-to-let this year. This is £141,760 (49pc) less than a landlord who bought in the South of England for an average of £292,240. This lower property price would save an investor £11,190 on stamp duty costs. Overall, the North East of England remains the most popular spot for buy-to-let with 25pc of all landlords who bought properties this year, buying in the area. The region also offers the highest yield in the country of 9.3pc compared to the national average of 7.1pc. Buy-to-let purchases have fallen everywhere in the UK over the past 10 years apart from in the North East. In contrast London and Wales have seen the biggest drop in buy-to-let purchases in the last decade. The share of homes bought by landlords in Wales fell by nearly two-thirds over the last decade. Investors made up 6pc of all buyers in the country so far this year, down from 16pc in 2015. London offers just 5.7pc in rental yields, the lowest in the country. Rents on newly let properties in the capital have fallen for the past five months with just 23pc of landlords in the city increasing the rent upon renewal in April, down from 37pc the year before. The Renters Rights Bill is currently making its way through Parliament, with Labour peers warned they may have to sit late on Wednesday night to push the legislation forward. The Bill, introduced to Parliament last September, is set to implement several key protections for tenants, including a ban on no-fault evictions and fixed-term tenancy agreements. Landlords now worry the changes mean they will be unable to claim their property back from problem tenants. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
