It now appears that Labour wanted the Renters Reform Bill to be waved through into law last week – but the government said no.

The BBC reports: “Labour sources indicated that although they wanted changes, they would have supported the Bill as it currently stood.

“But a government source argued amendments from cross-bench, or independent, peers in the House of Lords meant there was not enough time to pass the legislation.”

A separate Labour source told Landlord Today that Labour wanted the Bill to become law – despite reservations over some details – because this would mean the party was not obliged to start a similar measure should it win the July 4 election.

A new Bill, should Labour win, is likely to be a fractious and uncompromising process with pro-tenant lobby groups having made strong alliances with Labour over the past year, with party supporters getting into prominent positions in the groups in question. 

Housing issues did not appear on Labour’s recently-published ‘big six’ policy priorities and there has been no commitment over the weekend for Labour to make a new Bill a priority if it wins power.

However the party remains in principle in support of the scrapping of Section 21 eviction powers and other wider reforms of the private rental sector and it is thought that these commitments will feature in the Labour manifesto when it is published next week.

The Renters Reform Bill acted on a 2019 Conservative manifesto promise to abolish Section 21 evictions, but over the years became a much larger Bill, initially seen as pro-tenant but more recently amended to become workable for both landlords and renters.