Housing Lawyers Draft Bill To Empower Tenants

Housing specialists have been working on a private members bill that empowers tenants to force their landlords to fix hazards that pose a serious threat to their health and safety. The homes (fitness for human habitation and liability for housing standards) bill 2017-19 will have its second reading in the House of Commons in January. The bill has been sponsored by Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on legal aid. Under the bill, tenants will be able to take action against their landlord to fix a 'category one' hazard in their building, not just in their flat. Read more on the Law Society Gazette website.

Select Committee To Scrutinise New Homelessness Law

A parliamentary committee has launched an inquiry into a private members’ bill that aims to reduce homelessness. The CLG Committee has announced a pre-legislative inquiry into the Homelessness Reduction Bill, tabled by Conservative MP Bob Blackman. Mr Blackman’s bill includes measures to help councils intervene earlier to prevent people becoming homeless, as well as providing help for single homeless people. The committee will examine whether the bill will “achieve its aim of reducing levels of homelessness”. Mr Blackman is a member of the select committee. Read more on Inside Housing.

Crisis Steps Up Prevention Duty Pressure

A charity is pushing backbench MPs to table a bill imposing a homelessness prevention duty on councils, after the measure was left out of the Queen’s Speech. Homelessness charity Crisis has opened talks with MPs who will be best placed to table a Private Members’ Bill (PMB) this parliamentary term to introduce the legislation. PMBs rarely make it into law, but the charity believes the move would put pressure on the government to reveal publicly where it stands on introducing the duty, which would overhaul the way single homeless people are treated in England. Read more on Inside Housing.

MPs Must Seize 'Historic Opportunity' To Tackle Homelessness

MPs have been urged to grasp an 'historic opportunity' to make the most significant change to the law on homelessness in nearly 40 years. Crisis is urging the MPs selected in a Private Members’ Bill ballot to champion a change in the law that will ensure homeless people in England can no longer be turned away to sleep rough by their council. The proposed Bill, put forward by an expert panel of council representatives, lawyers and housing experts, would see a reformed law introduced requiring all councils in England to take action to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. Read more on the Crisis website.

MPs To Vote To Let Tenants Sue Negligent Landlords

Private renters living in squalid conditions could get the ability to sue their landlord if MPs approve a private member’s Bill. Westminster North MP Karen Buck will introduce the Bill for its Second Reading in the Commons. If passed, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill would resurrect a law from 1885 which has been rendered obsolete by nearly sixty years of rent inflation. Tenants already have the right to a home that is fit for human habitation, but only if the rent is less than £52 per annum (or £80 in London) – limits last revised in 1957.  Both the Law Commission in 1996 and the Court of Appeal in 1997 called for the archaic rent limits to be scrapped, but successive governments have failed to act. Read more on 24dash.

Tories in Commons 'Time Wasting' Plot To Save Bedroom Tax

Tory MPs are being accused of hatching a time wasting Commons plot to save the Bedroom Tax. Now supporters of its abolition have threatened to force an all-night sitting to ensure the reforms go through Parliament. A private Bill that would scrap the cruel tax for many victims is now being considered by a committee of MPs. If it becomes law those who could not be found smaller homes would be exempt from charges on extra bedrooms. But Tories on the committee are trying to have it bogged down in irrelevant debate says the Bill’s Lib Dem sponsor Andrew George. And No10 is also trying to slam on the brakes by refusing to grant the “money resolution” required by any backbench Bill. This formality allows Bills which involve public money to progress through its stages. Read more on the Sunday People website.

Bill to Close Energy Efficiency Loophole for HMOs in Parliament

A trade body has thrown its support behind a private members bill that would require houses of multiple occupation to comply with upcoming minimum energy standards for the private rented sector. Dr Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton, first presented the Houses in Multiple Occupation (Energy Performance Certificates and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards) Bill 2014-15 in July. It aims to address a loophole in the regulations that currently excludes homes let on a room-by-room basis from the upcoming energy-efficiency private rented sector regulations, ensuring all properties will have to meet a prescribed level of energy efficiency before they can be legally let. Read more on Inside Housing.

Government Vows to Outlaw Revenge Evictions

Ministers have given their backing in principle to a Private Member’s Bill to stop rogue landlords who, rather than meet their legal duty to keep their properties at a reasonable standard and remove health and safety hazards, instead evict tenants simply for asking for essential repairs to be made - on the condition that the Bill only targets bad landlords and cannot be used by tenants to frustrate legitimate evictions. Communities Minister Stephen Williams said Sarah Teather’s Bill would help root out spiteful landlords and ensure that hardworking tenants are not afraid to ask for better standards in their homes. The Bill will extend the existing restrictions on a landlord’s power to evict, where they don’t protect a deposit or have a licence they are required to hold, to situations where a health and safety hazard has been identified by environmental health officers. Read more on the CLG website.

Bedroom Tax Bill Would 'Create More Administration for Social Landlords'

A proposed bill to exempt hundreds of thousands of households from the bedroom tax would lead to legal challenges, appeals and more administration costs for social landlords, sector experts have warned. A private members bill to change the bedroom tax, tabled by Liberal Democrat backbencher MP Andrew George, passed its second reading in the House of Commons by 306 votes to 231 last Friday. Giles Peaker, partner at law firm Anthony Gold Solicitors, said social landlords would have to monitor bids through their choice-based lettings systems to see who has rejected a reasonable offer of accommodation. They would then have to share the information with the local authority housing benefit department. Read more on Inside Housing.

MPs Vote for Bedroom Tax Changes

MPs have voted in favour of a bill that would exempt large numbers of people from the bedroom tax. A private members bill, tabled by Liberal Democrat backbencher Andrew George would exempt tenants from the bedroom tax if they have not received a reasonable offer of alternative accommodation. MPs voted by 306 votes to 231 in favour of the bill during its second reading in the House of Commons. Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary described the vote as ‘an important victory for all those paying today.’ Labour will now seek to amend the bill to scrap the bedroom tax entirely. The bill will now be considered in detail by a public bill committee of MPs. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Benefit: Coalition Faces Commons Split

The Lib Dems and Conservatives are set for a Commons showdown later over a bid to ease housing benefit changes. Lib Dem MP Andrew George wants to exempt more people from what critics call the "bedroom tax". Lib Dem MPs will get behind Mr George's bill, with Labour also promising to back it. The Tories are understood to have ordered their MPs to vote against the bill on Friday (5^th) on a three-line whip. If Mr George's private member's bill becomes law people who could not be found a smaller home would be exempt from the housing benefit changes. The bill would also exempt disabled people who need a spare bedroom or who have adapted homes. Read more on the BBC website.

MPs Pass Social Housing Fraud Bill

MPs have passed a bill outlawing the illegal sub-letting of social housing properties.  The private member’s bill, proposed by Conservative MP Richard Harrington, received cross-party support during its third reading in the House of Commons.  The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Bill will mean tenants that illegally sub-let their properties could face up to two years’ imprisonment as well as a possibly unlimited fine. At present sub-letting is a civil offence, meaning it cannot attract a custodial sentence on its own. Read more on Inside Housing.

Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Bill 2012-13

Private Members' Bill sponsored by Richard Harrington MP, to create a new criminal offence of subletting; and allow for proceeds of subletting to be reimbursed to the social landlord in whose stock the fraud was committed. Find full details on the Parliament website.