Janet Finch-Saunders: Welsh tenants are being let down by their Government

Not only has the Welsh MS Janet Finch-Saunders branded the new tenancy laws in Wales as a ‘disaster’ for landlords – but says that tenants are being failed by the Welsh Government and homelessness will get worse.

The Labour-led government in Wales is supported by Plaid Cymru which has seen the introduction of Rent Smart Wales in recent years – and, more recently, the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016.

This new law fundamentally changes the way that landlords can operate and, among other things, sees tenancy agreements being replaced with ‘occupation contracts’, and the ‘no fault’ notice period is extended from two to six months.

And now Ms Finch-Saunders, the Shadow Minister for Climate Change in the Senedd, says that she is seeing more constituents ending up on the homeless list because there are so few homes to rent – and she warns that things will get worse in 2023.

‘They’re told it’s temporary accommodation’

She says: “I’ve got people in golf clubs in Conwy County. I’ve got people in hotel rooms, I’ve got people in B and B’s, and they’re told it is temporary accommodation, but they’re there for months.

“The Local Authority spending on housing them was around £1.2m in 2019/20, £2.5m in 2020/21, and now they are estimating £7m.

“The costs just keep going up. They are putting people in hotels in my constituency at eyewatering amounts a room and that’s just a basic cost per day. It’s just unsustainable.”

Ms Finch-Saunders says the Welsh Labour Government and their co-operation partners in Plaid Cymru should stop targeting holiday let people, second homeowners and private sector landlords and create more homes instead.

‘People who contribute to our economy’

Ms Finch-Saunders said: “They are going after people who contribute to our economy.

“But we’ve had 25 years of a lack of ambition in Wales and the Welsh Labour Government does not understand business. They do not understand aspiration or ambition. It’s really sad.”

Rather than clamp down on the PRS in Wales, Ms Finch-Saunders says that public land should be freed up by the Welsh Government.

She says: “Local authority land, health authority land, is somewhere they could go and build some rented social housing, some affordable housing. But again, there’s no ambition.”

‘I’m glad my landlord can’t do this anymore’

Pointing at the new laws, Ms Finch-Saunders said: “I’ve spoken with tenants who, once upon a time, might have thought, ‘Oh, I’m glad my landlord can’t do this anymore. My landlord can’t do that’.

“But now we’ve got tenants saying, ‘I’ve lost my home now, thanks to the Welsh Labour Government and Plaid Cymru because my landlord has told me it’s because of these regulations’.

“They are asking, ‘Why has he served me with a section 21? There are no houses. I have to move into a hotel now’.

“And then they say to me, ‘So, will you tell the Welsh Government, Janet? That this is their fault that I’m losing my home’. I’m hearing that now on a regular basis.”

Realising that the laws are failing them

She says that growing numbers of tenants who thought that the new laws were being introduced to help them are, in fact, realising that the laws are failing them.

Previously, Ms Finch-Saunders had told Property118.com that the new laws were a ‘disaster for landlords’ and the fear of its introduction had seen landlords issuing Section 21 notices.

She also warns that by extending the notice period to six months won’t help landlords either because with the slow court process, a landlord could see a possession process now taking more than 12 months.

There is, however, a simple solution to deliver extra homes for tenants in Wales and that is to focus on the number of empty properties, she says.

‘More empty homes in communities’

Ms Finch-Saunders explained: “The Welsh Government keeps going on about second homeowners and having a go at them but historically there are more empty homes in communities than there are second homes.

“And now private landlords have just had enough. They’ve lost all confidence – though I doubt they ever had much confidence in Rent Smart Wales because it doesn’t function at all well.”

Ms Finch-Saunders says that the Welsh Government has created a housing crisis that is hurting tenants and landlords.

She said: “Right from when the government brought in Rent Smart Wales, I said there has to be a balance.

“All that a private sector landlord wants is for someone to look after that property and pay their rent.

“But sometimes, you know, they’re not the ideal tenants that are in these properties and there is a risk factor for landlords to consider.”

‘The law now is skewed heavily in favour of the tenant’

She added: “A landlord will need to buy a property, and they often spend a lot of money refurbishing it, but the law now is skewed heavily in favour of the tenant.

“There’s no education for tenants to pay rent and avoid being evicted and this is in a house that a landlord has had to work long hours to buy to put the tenant in.”

The MS says that rents in Cardiff and her own constituency are increasing as tenant demand for fewer properties begins to make itself felt.

She said: “Properties that were £800 a month are going up to £1,000 a month because the market is shrinking. Landlords can charge more.

“So again, that’s going to be felt by many tenants and there will be families who cannot afford those higher rents.

“Why should tenants be priced out of the market by Welsh Government legislation? If Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru want people to have a place to call home, they urgently need to acknowledge their mistake and suspend the new law.”

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