The charity Shelter is organising a fringe meeting at next week’s Conservative party conference, with a prominent campaigner for a mandatory register of Airbnb hosts as its main speaker.

The Conservative party agenda document says the Shelter fringe event will be addressed by North Devon MP Selaine Saxby.

Back in January Saxby spoke in the House of Commons in favour of a compulsory register of short let hosts, supporting an initiative from former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron. At the time she claimed that in the market town of Barnstaple, in her constituency, only two properties were listed for long-term rentals, while 123 were available on Airbnb.

Elsewhere in the Tory conference there appears – perhaps surprisingly – to be no major slot for the new Housing Secretary Simon Clarke. 

The agenda lists an extensive number of Cabinet ministers and junior ministers to address delegates in the main hall of the conference, including a two hour session on Monday afternoon led by controversial Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, but there is no debate given over to levelling up or housing, and no slot for Clarke.

There are scores of fringe meetings at the conference, which runs from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday morning, and some are given over to levelling up and housing-related issues. 

But there is nothing specifically about rental reform aside from the Shelter-organised event, doing nothing to quell the speculation about whether the Renters Reform Bill and the Fairer Private Rental Sector White Paper – both products of the Boris Johnson government – will survive under the leadership of new Prime Minister Liz Truss. 

Truss herself addresses delegates just before the conference loses at Wednesday lunchtime.