LANDLORD
TIMES
December 2023
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Dear Ms Rayner…. Associate director Nik Kyriacou gives his assessment of The Renters' Reform Bill's second reading. Last month the Renters’ Reform Bill finally received its second reading in the House before moving to committee stage.
would suggest anyone involved in the sector, just wants clarity and to be able to move forward with certainty.
Unsurprisingly it was a fiery exchange between the government and the opposition benches not least as a result of some of the key issues having been abandoned since its first reading.
With that in mind I decided to write to Ms Rayner, outlining some key concerns and asking if she would meet me to discuss these issues.
This included the abolition of Section 21 ostensibly because the court system was not equipped to process the claims quickly enough. However Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s opposite number to Michael Gove MP, was having none of it and suggested it was a “grubby deal” done with those backbench Tory MPs who were themselves landlords. This to-ing and fro-ing of key pieces of proposed legislation ignited once again frustration amongst the sector. Landlords, tenants, agents and indeed I
In the letter I explained how I’d had a less than impressive response from the government following my letter to Mr Gove and our meeting with one of our local MPs, Nadhim Zahawi. What follows is the bulk of the letter. “Firstly, as Mr Gove said, landlords are a good thing. They provide a service and an important one. Not all are bad, as was also agreed during the debate. However the proposals as they stand will not in my view address the bad apples, but rather encourage the good ones to leave – which will have a hugely damaging effect on the sector, most notably for tenants, many of whom will find themselves struggling to find
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