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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Rachael Burford

Labour Party conference: Plan to ban ‘no pet’ rules for renters and make evictions harder

Labour has laid out plans for sweeping housing reforms that would reduce landlord powers to kick out tenants or stop them keeping pets.

Shadow Levelling Up secretary Lisa Nandy said the party’s Private Renters’ Charter would end no-fault evictions, give renters rights to make home alterations and stop bans on animals in rental properties.

It would also enforce a four-month notice period for landlords wanting to evict tenants and see a national register of landlords set up.

Addressing the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday, Ms Nandy is expected to say: "For private renters we will tilt the balance of power back to you through a powerful new renters’ charter and a new decent homes standard – written into law.

"Because security in your home, the right to make your home your own, and most of all the right to live in a home that isn’t cold, mouldy, damp and unfit for human habitation, is a fundamental human right.”

Ms Nandy was also set to pledge a Labour government would build a "new generation" of council housing to “mend the deliberate vandalism of our social housing stock”.

In England, around one million families are on the social housing waiting list. This includes more than 250,000 households in the capital.

The reforms would be put to a House of Commons vote within the first 100 days of a Labour government, Ms Nandy added.

The number of renters made homeless because of no-fault evictions has surged in recent months to levels not seen since before the pandemic.

Nearly 20,000 households in England were made homeless by landlords using section 21 notices in 2021/22, up from almost 9,000 the previous financial year, according to government figures.

Campaigners have argued that no-fault notices can be used as revenge evictions if tenants complain about conditions or rent rises.

The Conservative government introduced an eviction ban during the pandemic and has promised to end the practice permanently, but it is yet to pass legislation.

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