Roberta Blackman-Woods MP: Protecting tenants in the private rented sector

It is common knowledge that the private rented sector (PRS) is expanding rapidly, with current estimates putting the total number in private tenancies at 9 million.

What isn’t so well known is that almost 50 per cent of that growth has come from families with children. Or that homes in the PRS are worse than in any other housing sector, with a third of properties failing to meet even basic standards .Too often the PRS doesn’t offer the secure, affordable and decent homes that renters deserve.

Today I am speaking at the launch of a joint reportby Electrical Safety Firstand Shelter – Home Improvement: Tackling poor electrical safety in the private rented sector– which illustrates just how pressing the need to improve standards in the PRS has become. This timely report highlights how enhancing electrical safety is vital to achieve this.

Poor electrical safety in the PRS is a very real problem which can – and does – kill and injure. In the last year, 16% of PRS tenants have experienced electrical hazards and this figure increases to 20% for those with children . In Great Britain as a whole, half of all domestic fires arise from electricity; one person per week is killed in an electrical fire and more than a quarter of a million (350,000) each year are severely injured as the result of an electric shock , with research suggesting private tenants are more likely to be affected.

Yet the law protecting tenants in the PRS from electrical hazards is piecemeal and there is no requirement for landlords to regularly inspect the electrics in their properties unless they rent out registered houses in multiple occupation (which is a small percentage of the sector). In comparison, landlords must provide an annual gas safety certificate as proof that the installation and appliances are safe.

Electrical danger is often invisible, so Electrical Safety Firstand Shelter are calling for mandatory, five yearly checks of the electrical installation in a PRS property, along with any electrical appliances supplied with it. They also want residual current devices or RCDs, which rapidly turn off the electric current if they detect a fault, to be installed in all PRS tenancies.

The reforms proposed in this joint reportshould be of great interest to the Government, which recently published a discussion paper on the PRS and is slowly coming to the realisation that governance of the sector is in need of real, meaningful reform.

For our part, the Labour Party is determined to improve the PRS. Too often unscrupulous letting agents are ripping people off; people and families that are renting are subject to a lack of stability through short-term tenancies and unpredictable rent increases; and too many homes are of a poor standard. Not only would Labour institute a national register of private landlords, a new set of standards for the sector and tougher sanctions against bad landlords, we would also offer longer term tenancies and predictable rent, providing stability and security to millions of tenants.