Submission: Inquiry into reforming the private rented sector (Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee)

To ensure the plans outlined in the "A fairer Private Rented Sector" White Paper meet the Government’s ambition to tackle injustices in the private rented sector and ensure every renter has a secure, safe and decent home, the Government must now:

1. Strengthen notice periods to at least four months where the tenant has not breached the tenancy agreement

2. Increase the period of commitment for which a landlord cannot use a landlord-need ground from 6 months to 2 years

3. Set out detail on the evidence bar required for individual grounds for possession

4. Extend the re-letting period from three months to 12 months in cases where a landlord has evicted to sell or for them or their family to move in

5. Unfreeze housing benefit and scrap the benefit cap so that people are not forced into homelessness as living costs and rents continue to rise

6. Provide local authorities with ringfenced funding to carry out proactive enforcement

7. Place a legal duty on local authorities to ensure that they have at least one tenancy relation officer in their housing teams

8. Restore legal aid to ensure the Decent Homes Standard works properly, as well as other prior legislation like the Fitness for Human Habitation Act 2018

9. Regulate and professionalise letting agents by bringing forward a legally enforceable code of practice that all letting agents must abide by.