The Renters Reform Bill returns to the House of Commons for its third reading next Wednesday — after pressure from Conservative backbench MPs forced the government to make a series of amendments.   

The wide-ranging legislation will abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, tighten rules around landlord repossessions, improve housing conditions and strengthen local council powers to regulate landlords.  

Amendments to the bill include:  

• A review of the court system before ending section 21 for existing tenancies to make sure it can cope with the increased workload  
• It accepts a proposal by the cross-party housing select committee that when a fixed-term tenancy agreements end, “tenants be unable to give two months’ notice to leave until they have been in a property for at least four months.”  
• All types of student housing will be covered by new planned ground for possession to protect the annual cycle of this housing market  

These measures were first set out by former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2019.  

A bill was finally published last May, setting out major changes that govern the relationship between England’s 11 million private renters and 2.3 million landlords.  

The legislation completed its committee-stage line-by-line reading by MPs last November, but a group of around 50 Conservative MPs, some of whom are landlords, complained to the government arguing that its measures are biased in favour of tenants.   

But last month, levelling-up minister Jacob Young wrote to all Conservative MPs saying the bill would return to the floor of the Commons for debate after the Easter recess with changes.  

National Residential Landlords Association chief executive Ben Beadle says: “Our focus has been on ensuring that when section 21 repossessions end, the replacement system works and is fair, to both tenants and responsible landlords.  

“Tenants should rightly be empowered to hold rogue and criminal landlords to account to root out the minority who bring the sector into disrepute.   

“However, it is vital that the majority of responsible landlords have confidence in the Bill to provide the homes for rent the country needs.  

“The amendments proposed by the government strike that balance.  

“It is now important to provide certainty to the market, so it can transition smoothly to the new system. We therefore call on MPs to ensure swift passage of the bill through Parliament with the government’s planned changes.”  

More than 26,311 households in England have been removed from their home by court bailiffs as a result of Section 21 since the government first promised to scrap no-fault evictions in 2019, according to Ministry of Justice data.  

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate says: “It’s utterly shameful that the government is bowing to vested interests while renters are marched out of their homes in their thousands.”  

She adds: “There’s still time and opportunity to deliver a bill that makes renting safer, fairer and more secure, but the government must grasp the nettle and oppose attempts to water down the bill from inside its own ranks.”  

Labour has promised to ban no-fault evictions if it forms the next government.