Michael Gove, Britain’s leveling minister, must push through two major housing reforms to protect tenants and tenants ahead of the next election, as the UK’s housing crisis is increasingly high on the political agenda.
Gove was given the green light to introduce a Tenancy Reform Bill in the last session of this parliament, while next week he will publish a bill to end ‘no-fault’ tenant evictions.
However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Gove are being criticized by Labor and some Tory MPs for not doing more to address chronic housing shortages and bowing to Anti-development “Nimbys”.
Gove will publish a Tenant Reform Bill next week, first promised in the 2019 Tory manifesto, which will abolish so-called ‘Section 21 orders’ which allow landlords to evict tenants in England on eight weeks’ notice without any explanation.
The scrapping of ‘no-fault’ evictions has been the target of housing charities, who say the current law leaves tenants in a precarious situation.
Polly Neate, chief executive of the charity Shelter, said the government had ‘dragged on legislation for four years, leaving tenants trapped in ‘a broken, insecure and unfair system’.
Meanwhile, government insiders say Gove has been given the green light to introduce a new Tenancy Reform Bill in the autumn, with a view to changing the system in England and Wales – but not to abolish it – before the elections.
Below Lease contracts, landlords do not have full ownership of their property but hold long-term leases under which many must pay annual ground rent to whoever has “full ownership”.
The changes are expected to include a cap on land rents at 0.1 percent of freehold value. Gove hinted that the whole tenancy system could one day be scrapped, calling it “an outdated feudal system that needs to go”.
Although Sunak thinks his decision last year to drop mandatory housing construction targets for local areas is popular with some voters, a generation of young people are struggling to find affordable housing.
“We know we have to do something, but we don’t know exactly what,” admitted a government insider.
Neither Gove nor the Treasury are keen on the idea, launched this week, of a new government-backed ‘Help to Buy’ scheme, which some say would simply push up house prices.
Last autumn the Treasury also rejected plans to further increase taxation on overseas buyers of UK property, arguing it could freeze the market and bring in little money.
Gove will lay out some of his ideas in a keynote on housing, due later this month, in which he will argue for the “densification” of cities, using high-density urban areas like Paris as an example.
But Sunak made it clear in the House of Commons this week that he stood by his decision not to ask councils to allow more housing construction on greenfield sites.
He accused Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer of wanting to “impose top-down housing targets, cement the greenbelt and trample on local communities”.
While Conservative Party strategists believe Sunak’s politics worked well in Thursday’s local elections in England, some Tory MPs say a ‘not in my backyard’ trend is hurting people trying to find accommodation.
Former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, who represents a Middlesbrough seat, said in a WhatsApp message seen by the Times newspaper: “We cannot become the party of nimbyism.”
The supply of new homes stood at 232,820 in the year to March 2022, according to government figures, well below the official target of 300,000.
Homebuilder output is expected to fall about 25% this year, Investec analysts say, in part due to rising mortgage costs after last year’s “mini” budget.
Gove County insists that putting local communities in charge of development plans is the best way to reach the 300,000 target.
But the homebuilding industry is critical of ministers’ approach, including the cumbersome planning system, the decision not to extend or replace aid for first-time buyers and the watering down of national homebuilding targets.
Peter Truscott, managing director of homebuilder Crest Nicholson, said ‘the government has gotten horribly wrong with its housing policy’.
The Department for Leveling Up said: ‘We are building a housing market that works for everyone and that is why next week we will introduce the Tenant Reform Bill and Tenancy Reforms later this week. parliament.
“These changes will give renters and lessees more protections and allow them to challenge unreasonable costs.”
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