The Renters’ Rights Bill will be undergoing its second reading in parliament this Wednesday 9th October. This will be the first opportunity for MPs to debate the principles of the bill and highlight areas that need to be amended.
This is a key moment to ensure the bill is strengthened! You can help by writing to your MP, urging them to champion stronger protections for renters.
Across political parties we’ve seen homes being described as the foundation for good health. Health workers can play a powerful role in influencing decision makers on housing policy.
Millions of people are living in unaffordable, insecure, and poor-quality houses that are negatively impacting our physical and mental health.
Privately rented homes are the most insecure, most expensive and lowest quality of any tenure. The long awaited Renters’ Rights Bill going through parliament will see some big changes for renters including ending Section 21 evictions, extending notice periods for eviction from two months to four, and extending Awaab’s Law and Decent Homes Standard to the private sector to deliver better quality housing.
However, we have an opportunity to push the government further to ensure that “no fault evictions” aren’t carried out through the “back door”, through rent hikes for example.
To read more about what other renters’ campaign groups are calling for, check out the Renters’ Reform Coalition and Generation Rent’s verdicts.
You can take action to help in your constituency! Write, tweet or speak directly to your MP to tell them that the health of our homes is a key concern for you and your patients. It will only take a couple of minutes to email your MP!
Check who your MP is, and how to contact them, by entering your postcode at this website: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
We’ve drafted a template email which you can view at the bottom of this page, or download as a Word document.
Let us know you took action!
Template email to MPs to demand a strong Renters’ Rights Bill
{YOUR FULL ADDRESS}
{YOUR POSTCODE}
{DATE}
Dear {MP NAME},
My name is {YOUR NAME} and I live in your constituency [FIND OUT WHAT YOUR CONSTITUENCY IS HERE].
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to you as a concerned health worker, and someone who witnesses first hand the critical link between housing conditions and public health. I would like to urge you to support and advocate for stronger renters’ rights legislation this Wednesday at the second reading of the Renters’ Rights Bill.
The Renters’ Rights Bill will bring long awaited changes to the 12 million private renters in England. However, the bill needs to go further to ensure evictions don’t take place through the back-door and new measures are introduced to ensure no one in 21st century England is forced to live in cold, damp, and mouldy homes.
Housing security, affordability and quality are key determinants of physical and mental health, especially for low-income families and essential workers like myself. The NHS is also overstretched and conditions related to poor housing is estimated to cost the NHS £1.4 billion in treatment costs every year, with wider societal costs estimated at £18.5bn per annum.
[Share a story from your own experience – it can be really powerful to say “In my own workplace I’ve witnessed…” ]
A stronger renters’ rights bill is not only a matter of fairness and human dignity but also a public health necessity. As a frontline health worker, I believe the following measures should be included in any such legislation:
- Delivering Warmer Homes: A safe, warm home that is efficient and cheap to heat is an essential foundation for a healthy life. This winter over 1 million rented households will be in fuel poverty. 1 in 4 private renters live in fuel poverty (24.1%), a higher rate than any other tenure in England.
A consultation on Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) has been promised, but we urgently need a legal commitment to the vital changes that would reduce fuel poverty, keep our homes warm and tackle climate change.
- Affordability: The Bill in its current form fails to tackle private renters’ primary concern: the unaffordable and soaring cost of renting. Rent inflation (8.4% in the year to August 2024) continues to far outstrip both wage growth (5.1%) and inflation (2.2%). Under these proposals, tenants are still vulnerable to rent-hike evictions, meaning that landlords can increase the rent with the purpose of forcing us out – effectively giving us a Section 21 by the back door.
To give us the security we have been promised, the government must limit the amount that rent can be increased within a tenancy to the lowest of either wage growth or inflation.
- Security – The notice period for no-fault evictions has been changed from two months to four months, reducing the pressure on tenants to urgently find a new home. We will also be protected from no-fault evictions for the first year of our tenancy.
However, this should be increased to two years in order to improve security and stability in new tenancies.
Substandard living conditions such as mould, insufficient heating, overcrowding, and unsafe environments often lead to chronic illnesses, respiratory conditions, and increased mental health challenges. Tenants who live in such conditions are often trapped due to a lack of affordable alternatives, fear of eviction, or unaffordable rent hikes.
As someone who sees the detrimental effects of housing insecurity daily, I urge you to champion stronger protections for renters. A robust renters’ rights bill would not only protect tenants from exploitation but also improve the overall health and well-being of our population.
I would be grateful if you could update me on any current efforts or bills addressing this issue.
I would also be happy to meet with you and discuss this further.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
{YOUR NAME}