IEA - Renters Reform Bill is beyond saving

8 Mar 2024 01:06 PM

Kristian Niemietz, Editorial Director at the free market think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs, commented on reports that the Renters Reform Bill is ‘on the brink of collapse’

“The Renters (Reform) Bill cannot be sensibly tweaked or amended. The best outcome would be if it were killed off entirely.

“The Bill’s flagship policy, the ban on so-called ‘no-fault evictions’, really amounts to a ban on fixed-term tenancy contracts. It means that a landlord may be stuck with a tenant for the rest of their life.

“This would discourage people with underused properties from becoming landlords in the first place, and it would make the remaining landlords pickier and choosier. It will bureaucratise the rental market, while shrinking its overall size.”

Notes to Editors

Contact: media@iea.org.uk / 07763 365520

• Kristian argued in The Spectator that new regulations would only hike house prices and rents further, and that allowing more house building is the real solution: The Renters’ Reform Bill won’t solve the housing crisis.
• Commenting on the Renters Reform Bill in May 2023, IEA Director of Public Policy and Communications Matthew Lesh stressed that “Making it harder to evict residents is only likely to make it harder to rent”: New rental rules risk backfiring.
• IEA Communications Officer Harrison Griffiths warned in CapX that the measures would “lead to more selective landlords and higher rents” with students, young professionals, recent immigrants, and those on low incomes likely to suffer the most: The road to even higher rents is paved with good intentions.

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.