The minister who was behind the Renters Reform Bill and the accompanying white paper has this morning resigned from the government.
Hughes was an advocate of the controversial proposal to scrap Section 21 evictions within the rental sector.
Eddie Hughes, the Conservative MP for Walsall North, tweeted a short while ago: “I have decided to hand back by red box in return for the opportunity to spend yet more time working for my constituents in Walsall North, championing their causes in Parliament. Thank you to all in the rough sleeping & housing sectors for support during my time as a minister.”
A replacement minister has not yet been appointed by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns for Propertymark, commented: “A change of Minister will add to the uncertainty the proposals within the renters’ reform white paper have created among the landlords our member agents represent, specifically the lack of protections against anti-social behaviour with the removal of Section 21 notices and the move away from fixed-term tenancies.
“We’re ready to work closely with whoever replaces Eddie Hughes to ensure that if the private rented sector is to be reformed, it is fair, balanced and workable, and goes ahead without any further delays.”
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Comments (8)
Nice one Mr Hughes are you sure you are not communist, labour or Green party? So you support mayhem supported by Shelter and the usual lefties. You agree to stuff landlords AND TENANTS who will be more adversely affected by less property available to rent (as landlords leave the market which is now happening), more cautious landlords checking tenants out far more closely & demanding high grade guarantors that have a high equity in their own property. You perhaps are starting to realise the impact of the policies you support whilst the drongoes in the conservative party are now forced to go ahead with the ridiculous ill concieved scheme; as to not go ahead would mean your party have broken their manifiestoe promises. You will then stand back and say It wasn’t me gov as I was not dealing with this when it passed through parliament. Huh Poliltics for you!. This is, of course, a personal opinion, but I suspect it may be shared by many. So for housing ministers … “another one bites the dust and another ones gone……” as the song goes.
They don’t last long do they? This was the guy who said that there would be no rent controls in England. Let’s see what this weeks minister has to say about it. Liz Truss won’t be happy that Nicola Sturgeon seems to have stolen a March on her with rent rise and eviction bans
Tenants should be careful what they wish for. With no s21 evictions, tenants will not be able to ask the Council to house them pretending they didn’t know why they were evicted leaving the Council happy to assume it was a callous landlord who evicted for no reason. Also, without s21, HMO landlords will not be able to get rid of the troublemakers and the obnoxious who pay their rent but upset the other housemates and make their lives miserable. The bully must have his day in court and his victims must just suck it up and live under the same roof for months while the wheels of justice grind slowly (or more likely they will have to mover out).
Welcome to the new fairer PRS.
My understanding is that this bill will reform AST’s. Other forms of tenancy such as licences (which most HMO’s use) would not be affected.
Indeed as Council properties are generally non Housing Act tenancies, they are served NTQ’s (not s.21) so would be again unaffected.
Hopefully all the landlord associations and those who should be representing agents will take this opportunity to push for a complete rethink on this ill advised, poorly thought out proposal? And unicorns will be spotted roaming wild on Salisbury Plain!
The chances of this are as likely as having an effective and competent Government.
I suspect the stall is already set out now we are at the committee stage. Civil servants are beavering away behind the scenes. Yes, Eddie’s departure may delay things, there may be amendments, but the juggernaut will continue to roll.
All landlords must explain to the neighbours that if you end up with an anti social tenant next door to you that will be hyper expensive to remove it will have been at the behest of the conservative party for abolition of S21. If I had an anti social tenant (which gratefully I don’t) at the moment I would serve S21 and get rid of them as my neighbours are as important to me as a good tenant. The neighbours will tell me if things are going wrong and that is mutually useful to both of us. Make it “a go to court matter” by abolition of S21 where money grabbing lawyers make their dosh and it become less likely landlords could afford the costs involved so the bad tenant stays, depreciates the value of your and the neighbours property and screws up the local area. Since the abolition of S21 was announced I have explained what will happen as a result of the ill considered conservative party policy to my neighbouring property owners and those in the area of the rental property. When explained strangely they get it. As for credibility of the vote purchasing conservatives, well they don’t. Possibly because they are buying the tenant’s votes. As for help from the police or council to evict anti social tenants you must be smoking the aromatic pointy leaf stuff if you believe that one!