Here are the key policies that are in Labour’s manifesto for the private rented sector:

1. Abolition of Section 21

The manifesto contains the following firm commitment: “We will immediately abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions”, without qualification, as per Angela Rayner’s previous promise: “no ifs, no buts”.

It is interesting that they refer to “Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions”, and not all ‘no fault’ evictions, such as if a landlord wants the property for family. They don’t say whether they would add no fault grounds to Section 8, like the Ground 1A in the Renters Reform Billwhich would have allowed landlords to obtain possession if they wanted to sell up.

Note the word “immediately”. That is technically impossible as primary legislation would need to repeal Section 21, and that’s not something they can do the week after the election. But it suggests that it will be a priority piece of legislation.

2. New rights to challenge rent increases

The Labour manifesto does not include a reference to rent controls. It does, however, say they will “empower [renters] to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.

Presumably this would be in the First-tier Tribunal, as at present. No information is given about how tenants would be empowered to challenge increases, over and above the rights they already have to challenge a rent increase in a Section 13 notice, following the process under Section 14 Housing Act 1988.

Labour proposed an amendment to the Renters Reform Bill that would have withdrawn the power of the First-tier Tribunal to decide the rent should be higher than the rent requested by a landlord in their Section 13 notice – see amendment 22. It is likely that this approach would be reflected as part of the new rights.

3. Housing standards

The manifesto promises to “take steps to decisively raise standards, including extending ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the private sector”.

Awaab’s Law was introduced in Section 24 of the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023, and requires social landlords to investigate and fix reported health hazards within certain timeframes. The government issued a consultation on the detail, the results of which were not published by the time the election was called.

The private rented sector was not included in the scope of Awaab’s law, and a separate consultation was underway about the extension of the Decent Homes Standard from social housing to the private rented sector as part of the Renters Reform Bill. However, that was not published either.

It’s therefore unclear whether Labour would impose the same obligations on private landlords as social landlords, even though social landlords usually have teams of maintenance staff who can respond to reports of repairs.

4. Minimum energy efficiency standards in the PRS

The Conservatives dropped plans to require private rented properties to have an EPC rating of C by 2025.

However, Labour appear to revive that, although they don’t mention EPC C specifically. In their manifesto they say: “We will ensure homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030, saving renters hundreds of pounds per year. Nobody will be forced to rip out their boiler as a result of our plans”.

The devil will be in the detail, but it can be expected that landlords would be required to insulate properties and possibly replace single-glazed windows. The reference to not being required to scrap boilers is encouraging.

5. Anti-discrimination rules

The manifesto says that they would “prevent private renters being exploited and discriminated against”. There is no detail on what type of “exploitation” they are referring to.

I imagine that the reference to discrimination is to the discrimination against benefit claimants and families that was in the Renters Reform Bill.

What doesn’t Labour’s manifesto say about landlords and renters?

The Labour Party’s manifesto does not refer to the following provisions that were in the Renters Reform Bill:

• Abolishing fixed term tenancies and making periodic tenancies compulsory.

• The implied right for a tenant to have a pet.

• A new PRS ombudsman.

• National register of landlords / PRS database.

• New grounds for possession under Section 8.

The manifesto also does not refer to “rent controls”, or the “rent stablisation” proposed recently by Stephen Cowan (see below for more).

There is also no commitment to regulate property agents (letting agents, estate agents and managing agents), along the lines of the report on the working ground into the Regulation of Property Agents, chaired by Lord Best in 2019.