How will Renters Reform affect housing associations?

Proposed Renters’ Reform changes to rent to affect social products – your feedback needed

You will know that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) published a white paper on Renters Reform, A Fairer Private Rented Sector and its response to the 2019 consultation on abolishing Section 21, on 16 June 2022.

Our briefing of 7 July outlined what the changes to possession grounds and tenancy laws mean for housing associations. To recap, the proposed changes affecting housing associations are:

• Assured Shorthold and fixed term tenancies will no longer exist.
• Landlords will only be able to end tenancies on specific grounds.
• There will be new mandatory and discretionary grounds for possession in supported housing.
• There will be a mandatory ground for possession relating to leases.
• There will be a mandatory ground for possession in temporary accommodation.
• There will be a mandatory ground to allow social landlords to evict tenants who no longer meet the criteria for key worker accommodation.
• The government will only allow increases to rent once per year and will increase the minimum notice landlords must provide of any change in rent to two months.

Since publishing our original briefing on 7 July, we have had confirmation from DLUHC that the proposed changes to rent increases are intended to apply to social housing and not just non-social housing products. The proposals are to restrict rent increases to once a year and extend the minimum notice landlords must provide of any change in rent to two months. We have updated our briefing and questions which can be found below.

In the government documents, the proposed changes are under Section 4.1 and under “Changes to rent” (paragraph 38 onwards).

We know these changes could be potentially very significant for social housing providers and want to make sure we demonstrate this to DLUHC. We will also include it in our submission to the LUHC Select Committee inquiry on the White Paper.

Please send your feedback on how these proposed changes would affect your organization by 15 August 2022.