Britain | Fault lines

The missing ingredient in Britain’s new law on tenants’ rights 

Inadequate enforcement bedevils housing law

D6BTN1 For sale and for rent signs in a residential area mainly for the student population of Nottingham and trent University England
Beds and boardsImage: Alamy

On May 17th the government introduced to Parliament its Renters’ (Reform) Bill, a law designed to clarify the rights of Britain’s rising number of tenants (see chart). Among other things, the bill creates an ombudsman to resolve disputes between landlords and renters, and makes good on a Tory manifesto promise from 2019—to ban “no fault” evictions that allow owners to turf tenants out at short notice without a reason.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Fault lines”

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