A political update on the Renters’ Rights Bill

The Renters’ Rights Bill returned to the House of Lords this week. This means that we are now close to the passing of a long-expected piece of legislation, after the bill’s predecessor, the Renters (Reform) Bill, was first announced in the May 2022 Queen’s Speech.

The next step for the bill will be to work through over 300 proposed amendments in committee stage and pass a third reading vote in the Lords before it will return to the House of Commons. Here, MPs will consider any amendments made by peers, before the bill is approved by both Houses of Parliament and becomes law. We expect this to happen as early as July.

The CLA has been working extensively on the bill since the announcement of its predecessor. At the bottom of this blog is an overview of our work and the bill’s timeline.

Our action has led to various additions, including:

• A new ground for possession where the property is required for an incoming agricultural worker
• The “employers’ ground” which ensures possession is granted when an employment contract ends, has been strengthened by making it mandatory
• An equivalent of the existing “form 9” notice, which allows landlords to contract out of security of tenure when housing an agricultural worker, and thus preserve the right to repossess the property when the job is over
• Additional grounds are available specifically to landlords and tenants of agricultural tenancies where the superior lease ends and/or where the superior landlord becomes the tenant’s direct landlord

Over the last weeks the CLA has worked with various peers to propose some final additions to the bill to ensure it works better for members. Lord Carrington has gratefully laid and debated three amendments on our behalf at committee stage, with support from Lord Roborough and the Earl of Leicester.

We are also in support of two amendments which delay the end of Section 21 until court capacity has improved. These have not yet been discussed in committee stage, but we do not expect them to pass.

In the debate this week, Lord Carrington spoke on our three amendments.

The first of these was amendment 63, which would have created a new ground for possession for change of commercial usage of property. This was devised to support the diversification of farm businesses. The bill does not have the provisions to allow the re-possession of a residential property if there will be a change of usage, for example if a landlord wants to use the land for office space, commercial or retail usage. This amendment would allow landlords to seek possession of a dwelling-house where it is intended that the use of the property, or the land on which it is situated, be changed to non-residential.

Lord Carrington also discussed amendment 50, which would create a new ground for possession for incoming service occupancy workers.

We proposed this amendment as rural landlords are often also the employer of their tenants. Historically they have primarily housed agricultural workers, and legislation governing the private rental sector has evolved to give extra statutory protection to these workers. However, as it has become necessary to diversify, many farmers and landlords have businesses which employ staff to operate in other sectors. This amendment would allow landlords to gain possession from a non-employee tenant to house an employee of their diversified business.

Lord Carrington also spoke on amendment 65, around suitable alternative accommodation for an existed protected tenant.

This amendment would make it easier for employers to find suitable alternative accommodation for former or current agricultural employees that have protected tenancies under the Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976. It would allow landlords of rural properties to manage their properties when rehousing protected tenants and is important due to the longer-term nature of accommodation in rural areas, with an average tenancy lasting for 7.5 years.

These amendments received a significant support from a number of peers. However, the government clearly sees the introduction of Ground 5A of repossession as its concession to the rural private rental sector and is not looking to expand on this. It has indicated that it would not be willing to support any of these amendments.

Lord Carrington thus withdrew them without a vote. This means that we can potentially relay them, or something very similar, at a future stage in proceedings when there is more chance of them passing a vote.

There are a few more sessions of committee stage which the CLA will be keeping a close eye on. However, with the government clearly unwilling to listen to any form of amendment at this point, we expect the bill to move to report stage in the Lords as is.

It is therefore vital that members are prepared for the passing of the bill and the impact this will have on the rural private rental sector. The CLA is hosting a members’ webinar in May which will be important viewing.

May 2023 

• The CLA’s first round of MP briefings.
• We met with other organisations including Shelter and other Landlord representatives.

June 2023  

• We briefed MPs ahead of second reading in the House of Commons.
• We hold a Zoom briefing session for MPs and staffers on our concerns, S21, court reform and lack of flexibility for rural workers.

The bill was paused and carried over into the next session - work recommenced in October 2023.

October 2023 

• The bill is started again from scratch; we again briefed MPs ahead of first and 2nd reading focusing on accommodation often being tied to employment in rural communities.

November 2023 

• The bill entered Public Bill Committee stage, we submitted written evidence, and CLA Director of Policy Judicaelle Hammond provided oral evidence to the committee. 
• We regularly briefed the committee members including James Gray MP and Eddie Hughes MP. 

The bill remained in committee until the following April.

April 2024

• We decided not to place our amendments at third reading in the Commons as many of the amendments were being bulldozed, with the Conservative Government attempting to pass the bill before any election.
• During this period, we met twice with the responsible minister Jacob Young MP to discuss our amendments and find areas of compromise.

May 2024 

• The bill entered the House of Lords; we circulated a written briefing to all our peer contacts ahead of first reading. 
• We hosted a peer briefing session to discuss amendments.

The bill falls due the general election. 

The Renters’ Rights Bill is introduced in September 2024, with second reading occurring in October 2024.

October 2024 

• We briefed MPs ahead of the second reading of the bill in the Commons.
• We met with the Conservative lead on the bill David Simmonds MP and placed amendments on rural occupancy with the opposition.
• CLA Director of Policy Judicaelle Hammond again gave evidence to public bill committee.

The bill remains in committee until January 2025. 

January 2025 

• We chose to focus on peers and not place amendments at third reading in the House of Commons. 
• We circulated a second reading briefing to peers ahead of the debate on 4 February. 

February 2025 

• We placed a series of amendments on the bill with Lord Carrington and circulated our wider list of amendments with rural interested peers. 

April 2025

• We continued to place amendments with Lord Carrington and circulated a briefing ahead of committee stage to all peers. 
• Lord Carrington met with the Lords Minister Baroness Taylor of Stevenage to discuss our amendments and the rural private rental sector.