Plans to be unveiled in the government’s Levelling Up White Paper indicate that private-rented-sector landlords will soon be compelled to bring their properties up to a set of national standards.
The new legislation will include PRS reforms, which entails that landlords refit around 800,000 properties that do not meet requirements to be “safe, warm, and in a good state of repair”.
It is also expected that housing secretary Michael Gove will announce a new national register that private landlords must join – with rogue landlords being ejected from that list.
The white paper will also see the government launch a £1.5bn Levelling Up Home Building Fund which will provide loans to small and medium-sized developers to deliver 42,000 new homes, the majority of which will be outside of London.
The leaked plans aim to potentially bring the PRS sector into line with a “radical re-think of what we expect from home providers”. This will include obligations to rent out ‘decent’ properties required of councils and housing associations.
Sources in the levelling-up department said 34% of privately rented homes are classed as “non-decent” in Yorkshire and the Humber, compared with 17% in the South East.
Wider Levelling Up White Paper parameters under scrutiny include proposals to deliver transformational regeneration projects across the country, and to give greater spending power to local metro mayors.
LSL News.