The Home Office is to reconvene its Private Rented Sector (PRS) stakeholder panel on Right to Rent.

The government plans to take another look at the impact that the Right to Rent scheme is having on the private rental market.

The government’s controversial initiative, which forces landlords to undertake immigration checks on prospective tenants, is to be challenged in the High Court in December.

The government faces a challenge to its policy after the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) won the right in June to launch a High Court case against the Home Office’s scheme obliging landlords to check the immigration of would-be tenants.

The JCWI has gained consent for a full hearing to take place before the High Court on 18th and 19th December.

The JCWI’s legal challenge has received support from various bodies, including the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), which has long maintained that the policy could lead to indirect discrimination, with landlords, forced to act as what it describes as ‘border police’, likely to play it safe when it comes to renting out their homes.

Research by the RLA’s research division PEARL last year found that, as a result of the Right to Rent policy, 42% of landlords are now less likely to rent to someone without a British passport for fear of prosecution for getting things wrong. 

David Smith, RLA policy director said: “It appears the government is reforming the PRS stakeholder panel – which has been defunct for some time now.

“While we welcome the news the Home Office is keen to re-engage with the sector, we want to see them take bold action.

“Would-be tenants who are legally entitled to live in the UK, but struggle to prove it, are being denied homes and we believe the time has come to suspend this unfair scheme.”