Tenant activist group calls for a ‘stronger’ Renters’ Rights Bill

Acorn, the tenant activist organisation, is urging renters to contact their MP calling for a stronger Renters’ Rights Bill.

Its new campaign declares: ‘The Renters’ Rights Bill in its current form is a great start, but if it’s going to deliver the change we really need, it must be made stronger! Email your MP to fight for amendments to the bill!’

In its briefing paper, those interested in the campaign are told: “Acorn members voted on each policy area to produce a list of five key demands we hope can be achieved during the passage of the Bill. We still support wholeheartedly other measures laid out in the document.”

Acorn’s demands for RRB amendments

The details of Acorn’s demands for amendment to the Bill include:

• End illegal evictions: Make councils prioritise a ‘low prosecution rate’ against landlords who illegally evict their tenants
• Support landlord licensing schemes: Don’t have councils ‘jump through hoops’ with schemes that help ‘improve conditions for renters’
• The right to withhold rent for serious disrepair: Not paying rent as a deterrent for landlords not fixing problems that create unsafe conditions
• Cap rent in advance: Low income tenants struggle when ‘many landlords and agents ask for several months rent in advance’ – and its research found that benefits claimants are three times more likely to pay rent in advance
• Make renting affordable: A rent cap will prevent landlords from carrying out the ‘economic eviction’ of tenants – with one in four spending more than half of their income on rent.

Acorn wants to make renting impossible

Mick Roberts is the leading landlord in Nottingham for housing benefits tenants, and he says: “Acorn the renter’s union want to make renting impossible.

“They want to bring in legislation and rules that will stop a landlord giving them a house in the first place – why would you want to do that?”

He adds: “Making rent affordable and capping rent? Landlords could invest £150,000 a bank and have zero hassle and not go to prison if a tenant takes the battery out of the smoke alarm.

“Landlords are subject to 170+ rules and we didn’t slave for years at a loss to make it back up 15 years later.”

Policy considerations to the Bill

The document also sees Acorn highlight more policy considerations it wants to the Bill which include:

• No-fault eviction compensation: Tenants facing no-fault evictions would automatically be exempt from rent payments for the final two months of their tenancy
• Extended protection period: A two-year period of protection against no-fault evictions would be implemented
• Discretionary possession grounds: All grounds for eviction would be subject to judicial discretion, allowing courts to consider individual circumstances and potentially avoid or postpone evictions
• Enhanced enforcement: Local authorities would receive ring-fenced funding to boost enforcement efforts, with allocations based on the number of rental properties in their area
• Guarantor restrictions: Landlords would be limited in their ability to request guarantors, particularly when they have insurance coverage for non-payment of rent
• Disability and racial discrimination: Stronger protections would be introduced, including the abolition of the Right to Rent scheme and a legal obligation for landlords to make reasonable adaptations for disabled tenants using the Disabled Facilities Grant.

Share This Article