Levelling up, housing and communities secretary Michael Gove has introduced his (very) long awaited Renters (Reform) Bill to Parliament.
And the big news is that as it’s broadly as was outlined in the renter’s reform white paper back in June 2022, it’s generally a set of proposals that the circa 700,000 students in HMOs ought to be celebrating about – given it will strengthen their rights and give them easier access to tools to enforce those rights.
The suggestion had been that the powerful landlord lobby had somehow “got to” Gove, with a drumbeat of stories in The Times and the Telegraph all suggesting that the government would have to back off or water down a package of measures designed in particular to protect vulnerable tenants.
As well as all the other measures in there, two caused instant, vociferous and specific consternation from the landlord lobby – insofar as they saw a problem for the student section of the private rented sector.
