REFORM UK has pledged to abolish the Renters’ Rights Act introduced by Labour if it wins the next election with one property expert saying it would lead to “instability” while another warned it “risks creating a more insecure rental market without making rents cheaper”.
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will fundamentally overhaul England’s private rented sector starting in May this year.
It includes the abolition of Section 21 evictions, meaning landlords cannot evict tenants without a legal reason, rent increases limited to once a year at market rate, tenants have the right to request a pet, and discrimination against tenants with children or on benefits is prohibited.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said that rolling back the measures would help stimulate economic growth.
Speaking in Birmingham yesterday, Tice said he would head up a “Great Office of State” that would bring together housing, business, trade and energy under a single department.
He said: “Let’s have a Great Repeal Bill that ditches daft regulations: scrap Net Zero, scrap ZEV mandates, scrap new employment rights rules, scrap new property rental rules – all well intentioned but kill jobs, hinder growth, investment and prosperity. This will all help lower inflation and bring down bills for consumers.”
Property experts have shared their views on the scrapping of the Act.
It could create more instability
Patricia Ogunfeibo, Founder & non-practicing Solicitor at London-based tenant2owner, said scrapping the legislation would lead to “instability”.
She added: “I think Reform’s pledge to scrap the Renters’ Rights Act could eventually lead to growth, but as desirable as that may sound, it could nevertheless create more instability than Labour has with its retrospective provisions and disregard for existing contractual arrangements in the Act.
“This is another example of why renters shouldn’t leave their futures to the whims of politicians and shifting policies. The most empowering thing a tenant can do is take control and work toward owning their own home – securing their own housing futures irrespective of the government or policy in play.”
Heaping blistering costs to the sector is just untenable
Simon Bridgland, Broker at Canterbury-based Charwin Private Clients, said he didn’t expect Reform to completely scrap the legislation.
He continued: “I can see more of a dilution than an abolition. The Act introduced some good benefits for tenants such as improved living conditions, with the idea of removing the ‘slumlord’.
“The issue most landlords have is the sledgehammer used by the government to get the improvements. Constantly raising the energy efficiency bar to an unaffordable level and expectation.
“Heaping blistering costs to the sector is just untenable, especially when any profit is being stripped out by HMRC, where is the incentive to support and encourage a strong private rental market, which is in dire need to support the shameful lack of social housing. Reform may say they want to abolish the Act, but when they suckle on a cash cow, they’re after the cream.”
Risks creating a more insecure rental market
David Stirling, Independent Financial Adviser at Belfast-based Mint Wealth Ltd, said scrapping the legislation wouldn’t solve the crisis in housing in the UK.
He added: “The real test for any party isn’t whether it scraps rules or introduces them, but whether it can increase housing supply while ensuring renters have basic rights and security. Without both, Britain just keeps recycling the same housing crisis under different slogans.
“Reform inevitably wants to be seen as the party of the landlord and hyperbole such as this get them great headlines, but without dealing with the actual core of the problem nothing changes. Britain needs more homes. Weakening tenant rights without increasing supply risks creating a more insecure rental market without making rents cheaper.”
Individual nails in the coffin of UK plc
Michelle Lawson, Director at Fareham-based Lawson Financial, agrees with Reform’s policy.
She said: “In the time Labour has been in power nothing they’ve bought in has been common sense. They are U-turning like crazy due to their ill-thought-through policies and successive governments will likely undo most of them. None of these policies actually benefit anyone and they are just individual nails in the coffin of UK plc.
“Opposing parties will be looking at how they can start to restore public faith and win the next election. Each day that passes is one day less of Labour’s chaotic decision making. Renters’ Rights is one of those that needs to be filed in Room 101.
“It will lessen housing stock, making rents more expensive, result in less property choice and enable landlords to be more choosy, which affects some of the most vulnerable in society. Starmer is on course to be the Room 101 hoarder.”
Photo by Christopher Ott on Unsplash.
