In September last year, two months into my time as your MP, I was confronted with one of my first major challenges.
Dozens of residents in the Slipway flats in Whitehaven had been issued with eviction notices and given two months to find new homes. Some had lived there for decades. Many struggled to find alternative accommodation and had to present as homeless to the council, putting further strain on already stretched homeless provision.
The residents were evicted not for bad behaviour, criminal activity or failing to pay their rent. They were evicted for no fault at all. Alongside local councillor Emma Williamson, I did everything I could to help those who contacted me and convince the building owners to change their minds, but, under current law, this practice is entirely legal.
Last week I had those residents in mind when I voted for the Renters’ Rights Bill, which will finally ban these ‘no fault’ evictions for good, protecting thousands of private renters in West Cumbria.
Banning no fault evictions was a promise made by Theresa May in 2017, yet, in seven years, successive Conservative Prime Ministers failed to get it done. It is a promise made and a promise kept by this Labour government.
The Bill doesn’t just ban no fault evictions, it is the biggest package of protections for the private rented sector in over 40 years. It applies the Decent Homes Standard to private rented homes, to give private renters safer, better value homes; includes new rights to request permission to keep pets; strengthens local authority enforcement powers and sets up a new Ombudsman to deal with complaints; ends the practice of rental bidding which drives up prices; and much more.
Shamefully, every Conservative and Reform MP present voted against the Bill (Nigel Farage didn’t bother to show up – perhaps he was busy with one of the other eight jobs which earned him half a million pounds in the last six months on top of his MP salary).
Good landlords have nothing to fear from this Bill. This puts into law good practice already followed by the vast majority of good, responsible landlords. But dodgy landlords are on notice – clean up your act or face the consequences.
The problem the Bill doesn’t solve is exorbitant rental prices and the lack of availability of homes for private rent here in West Cumbria. It’s a demand and supply issue that we need to solve by increasing the supply of homes and that’s where our planning reforms and commitment to build 1.5 million new homes come in. Including many more affordable and social homes. Homes like those at the new Harbour Place development I visited in Workington last week.
I’m fully behind and determined to see us deliver these new homes for the many thousands of people across West Cumbria locked out of the housing market or stuck on waiting lists for social housing.
Josh MacAlister MP 