Giving people the right to a safe home
This week saw the introduction of Karen Buck MP’s Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill, a private member’s bill which will now have its second reading in parliament on Friday 19 January 2018.
The bill seeks to update the law requiring rented homes to be presented and maintained in a state fit for human habitation – updated because the current law only requires this of homes with a rent of up to £80 per year in London, and £52 elsewhere!
MPs to debate making rented homes fit for humans
When a tenant has a landlord who refuses to make repairs to the property, the local council should be their next port of call. Unfortunately, local council environmental health teams are woefully under-resourced and many cases of unsafe housing slip through the net – there are an estimated 16% physically unsafe privately rented homes.
Where the council doesn’t take action, it is technically possible for the tenant to take their landlord to court – but only if their rent is below £80 – a year. There is a requirement for landlords to ensure that homes are fit for human habitation but it’s limited to rent levels last set in 1957.
Karen Buck MP is setting out today to change that.
The Government’s record on private renting
As Parliament dissolves today and purdah begins, we’ve taken a look at everything the Government has, and hasn’t, done for renters.