Barnet’s more than 48,000 private renting households are receiving a boost through the Labour Government’s new private renters bill.
Private renters make up almost one third of all households in Barnet. Golders Green (48 per cent) and Colindale South (44 per cent) are in the ten per cent of wards nationally with the highest proportion of private renters.
The bill is set to:
- Abolish Section 21 ’no-fault’ evictions, applying the changes to both existing and new tenancies at the same time – giving all tenants security as soon as possible.
- Ban rental bidding wars, by cracking down on those who make the most of the housing crisis by forcing tenants to bid for their properties. Landlords and letting agents will be legally required to publish an asking rent for their property. They will also be banned from asking for, encouraging, or accepting any bids above this price.
- Introduce extra protections for tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases.
- End rental discrimination for those on benefits or with children, protecting tenants from poor living conditions by extending Awaab’s Law to the private sector and introducing the Decent Homes Standard, and are giving tenants the right to request a pet.
It compliments Barnet Labour’s action on housing, which includes the forthcoming private renters charter, and rebuilding the local authorities council housing stock.
Responding to the introduction of the Renters’ Reform Bill, Barnet Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Homes and Regeneration, Cllr Ross Houston, said:
“The last Conservative Government promised renters in they would ban no-fault evictions more than five years ago – but they let them down again and again. The new Labour government is taking action.
“Labour’s Renters’ Reform Bill will transform the rights and protections of renters in Barnet and across the country. Everyone deserves the right to a safe and secure place to live – and that’s what Labour will deliver.”
Samuel Solden, a Barnet Vale resident and private renter, said
“Private renters were invisible to the Conservatives when they were in power. It’s great to have a Labour Government and a Labour Council that is looking to protect renters.”
