The Renters Rights Act 2025 meets Labour’s manifesto commitment to transform the experience of private renting in England. We will introduce our reforms in three phases, the first of which will begin on 1 May, when section 21 no-fault evictions will be abolished and rent increases will be limited to just one a year. We will end rental bidding wars and limit requests for rent in advance to a maximum of one month, and it will be illegal to discriminate against prospective renters who have children or who receive benefits. These are the biggest reforms in the rental sector for a generation. The Tories and Reform UK voted against them and the Greens want to abolish renting, but this Labour Government stand firmly on the side of renters.
The availability of affordable housing in Somerset has plummeted, demand has surged and rents have risen by six times as much as income. These challenges are highlighted in rural market towns such as Glastonbury, where hundreds of people live in vans and caravans lining the kerbsides. Many are there because they cannot afford to rent a bricks-and-mortar home. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that everyone has a decent and safe place where they can afford to live?
Ensuring that there are decent and safe places to live all across this country is a primary objective of this Government. As the hon. Lady will be aware, the social and affordable homes programme opened for bids in February, and the first phase of bidding will close later in April. The programme will provide up to £39 billion for the biggest ever increase in the amount of social and affordable housing across this country, including council housing, which will make a massive difference to people in rural areas as well as those in other parts of the country.
T2. One of the biggest housing challenges in many of my villages and market towns—for instance, Orford, Aldeburgh and even larger towns such as Felixstowe— is the selling off of housing stock by social housing providers who do not replace it locally. Considering how to tackle the issue is critical, and, as was stated in a recent report by the Labour rural research group, expanding the use of rural exception sites must be part of the solution. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to do that in order to deliver affordable housing?
Our recent consultation on a revised national planning policy framework included proposals to strengthen support for rural exception sites, and to make it easier for authorities to require affordable housing on smaller sites in rural areas. My hon. Friend will also be aware that designated rural areas are already exempt from the right to buy, but I would be more than happy to meet her and her fellow members of the research group to discuss protecting existing stock, and other matters covered in the recent report that she referenced.
Last week I was in Bromsgrove, a rural constituency facing an 85% increase in its housing target. Neighbouring Labour-run Birmingham, which has significant brownfield capacity, has seen its target cut by more than 30%. Targets are increasing by 37% in Essex, but decreasing by 11% in London. House building has collapsed under this Labour Government, so why is the Secretary of State letting his Labour-run urban friends off the hook while dumping housing targets in rural Britain?
It was, of course, the Conservative Government who abolished housing targets everywhere, which led to the housing crisis that we are now facing. Under that Government, the number of people sleeping rough, on the streets and in shop doorways, doubled. Opposition Members are smiling while I explain what they did: they are smiling because the number of people sleeping on the streets doubled, while the number of families in temporary accommodation doubled as well. The Conservatives did nothing when the housing market collapsed in 2022-23 because of Liz Truss’ Budget, which the shadow Secretary of State supported.
The Secretary of State cannot answer—he does not have an answer. Perhaps he can give the answer that he failed to give in response to a written question, because he has once again refused to publish either the prospectus or the selection criteria for his election pilots. This is part of a wider pattern: cancelling elections that the Government do not think they will win, changing local government boundaries instead of giving that task to the independent Boundary Commission, and changing voter ID arrangements without consultation. When I saw this kind of behaviour overseas, I called it out for what it was: dirty, self-interested, partisan politics. Will the Secretary of State scrap this Orbán-style politics and start doing things properly?
As the right hon. Gentleman knows, elections are going ahead all over the country right now. I suspect that, like me, he has been campaigning and knocking on doors to talk to people about how they will vote, and we will find out in a few weeks what their judgments on all of us will be.
T3. I welcome the action that the Government are taking to improve the reporting and transparency of political donations from unincorporated associations in the Representation of the People Bill. Since 2010, 97% of donations from such bodies have come from unknown sources under the existing rules. Will Ministers consider going further and require information to be published on who runs unincorporated associations that make political donations and what their purpose is, to ensure that we have maximum transparency?
Through the Representation of the People Bill, we are significantly lowering the threshold for when unincorporated associations register with the Electoral Commission, and we will require them to publicly identify a responsible person who is legally accountable for compliance with electoral law.
Just before Easter, a development of 500-plus homes in my constituency, predicated on building a brand-new Howard of Effingham school, was withdrawn after a decade of commitment to the plan. The developer is expected to proceed with a new application without a school. The community and school are understandably angry and upset. What powers does the Minister have to ensure that developers can be held to such long-term commitments, and will he meet me to discuss the issue and its implications in my constituency and more widely?
The hon. Lady will appreciate that Ministers cannot comment on individual planning applications or local plans, but I am more than happy to meet her and discuss the general issues arising from the case she mentions.
T6. I have previously raised the case of the Ada Belfield care centre in Belper with my hon. Friend the Minister. At the moment, it has an uncertain future, because the Reform-led Derbyshire county council may sell the home. May I ask her to take an interest in this case to make sure that we have adequate adult social care provision in Derbyshire? She might like to raise that with the council’s leadership.
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue. It is important for local authorities to work very closely with NHS colleagues, as I am doing in Government, to ensure that we have sufficient adult social care. Otherwise, we will not be able to get people out of hospital and into good homes. I ask his local council to pay attention to that, and I will happily work with him on it.
T4. Lib Dem-run Stockport is the MJ’s council of the year. It spends £3 in every £4 on adults and children, and it includes the most deprived part of Greater Manchester, yet the Government’s funding settlement leaves the borough receiving £52 million less each year than the average across equivalent authorities. That has been made significantly worse this year. What advice would the Minister give to my constituents when they see the council having to make cuts to vital local services?