With the long-awaited Renters Reform Bill finally published, significant changes to the PRS are on the horizon – for tenants, landlords and local authorities.

In what’s expected to be the biggest shake-up of the PRS for 30 years, the new Bill includes provision for:

• The end of section 21 notices and fixed-term tenancies
• The introduction of the refreshed Decent Homes Standard
• The end of ‘No DSS’ adverts
• A new ombudsman
• A new ‘landlord register’
• The end of arbitrary rent review clauses
• Stronger powers for tenants to challenge poor practice and unjustified rent increases
• Tenants to be able to request repaid rent for non-decent homes
• An end to landlords or agents being able to impose blanket bans on renting to families with children or those in receipt of benefits.

The proposed changes have already prompted some key questions:

• Will homelessness end overnight, or will it be harder than ever to find a home in the PRS?
• Are landlords able and willing to meet the refreshed Decent Homes Standard, or will there be a mass exodus?
• Will tenants have a better experience once the Private Renters’ Ombudsman gets to work?

At this virtual event, we will:

• Provide local authorities and strategic housing teams with a comprehensive guide to the new legislation and attempt to provide answers to some of the questions
• Recommend the action you should be taking now to prepare for its introduction
• Consider the view of landlords, tenants and local authorities on the changes.
• Look at good practice examples across a range of issues affecting the PRS, such as preventing homelessness, tackling criminal landlords, supporting tenants, and making best use of your data to drive up standards and access funding.

Essential for:

• Strategic housing leads
• Homelessness Teams
• Private Sector Enforcement Leads
• Climate change leads.

10:30 Welcome from Chair

• • Emma Lindley, Associate, HQN

10:40 An overview of the policy context

1. • Roger Jarman, Associate, HQN

11:10 The letting agent and landlord’s view?

• • Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns,  Propertymark

    • The session will cover insight from Propertymark and outline role of letting agents, the implications of recent legislative change on agents and landlords as well as letting agent’s response to the Renters (Reform) Bill. 

11.40 The Renters Reform Bill: a positive force for change?

• • Sue Edmonds, CEO, Capital Letters

    • PRS trends
    • landlord sentiment
    • risks to supply, affordability and homelessness
    • benefits for tenants? 

12:10 Shining a light on the Shadow Private Rented Sector

• • Ben Reeve-Lewis, Co-Founder, Safer Renting

    • This session will examine the exponential growth in criminal and fraudulent activity in the PRS over the past 10 years & the challenges faced by local authorities in trying to regulate it.

12:40 Lunch

13:10 The TripAdvisor for renters

• • Ben Yarrow, CEO, Marks Out Of Tenancy

    • Introducing Marks Out Of Tenancy
    • Why The Tenant’s Voice Matters
    • Discontent User Generated Content
    • The Role Of Data.

13:40 The Renters’ Reform Bill – implications for renters

• • Tilly Smith, Campaigns and Partnerships Officer, Generation Rent

    • How renters’ right be changing under the new bill:
      • Evictions
      • Landlord accountability
      • Rent rises
      • Standards and unsafe homes.

14:10 Modelling house condition in Derby

• • Becca Jones, Senior Public Health Intelligence Analyst, Derby City Homes

    • Developing a local housing stock condition database for Derby and Derbyshire using local and national data.

14:40 Close 

Emma Lindley, Associate, HQN

Emma is a lead associate for HQN’s Strategic Network and has been an HQN Associate since 2013 . She regularly write briefings for HQN and has produced a toolkit on allocations and lettings. Emma has nine years’ experience working of in housing associations and a local authority in the East Midlands. She has worked in a variety of roles including managing a PRS portfolio, providing housing options advice, tenancy management and most recently strategic housing with responsibility for the homelessness service, affordable housing delivery and private sector renewal strategy.

Roger Jarman, Associate, HQN

Roger Jarman is a long standing HQN associate. He provides consultancy services; leads training programmes; and writes on housing regulation and other matters. He is the author of HQN’s Social Housing White Paper toolkit and delivers a range of training sessions on the White Paper proposals. He is also a Non Executive Director of two housing organisations. From 1991 until 1999 he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation and then from 1999 until 2011 he was Head of Housing at the Audit Commission overseeing the 1400 housing inspections undertaken by the Commission during that period. He was a member of the team that produced the Cave Review of social housing regulation in 2007.

Ben Reeve-Lewis, Co-Founder, Safer Renting

Ben has been in rogue landlord enforcement for 33 years in a multi disciplinary setting. A co-Author of the seminal report “Journeys in the shadow private rented sector” he is a specialist in criminal activities in the PRS. As well as managing a team of 10 caseworkers providing a TRO service to 12 London boroughs he is also a trainer with 22 years experience, is visiting lecturer in housing law for Middx University and is currently writing “Harassment & Illegal Eviction – A practical guide” for LAG publications.

Tilly Smith, Campaigns and Partnerships Officer, Generation Rent

Tilly has worked for Generation Rent for almost three years. Specifically, she has been working to ensure that marginalised private renters have a voice in our work, especially minority ethnic and migrant groups who are so often overlooked in campaigning. Tilly has particularly been working to ensure that marginalised groups benefit fully from the upcoming Renters (Reform) Bill, by researching racialised discrimination in the Private Rented Sector (PRS) and outlining policy which seeks to address these inequalities. As well as minority ethnic and migrant groups, also campaigned to ensure that survivors of abuse, LGBTQ+ people, and those on lower incomes are included in these reforms and beyond.

Ben Yarrow, CEO, Marks Out Of Tenancy

Ben is CEO of Marks Out Of Tenancy, the UKs largest PRS review platform.

Becca Jones, Senior Public Health Intelligence Analyst, Derby City Council

Becca has a housing intelligence background and moved into Public Health intelligence six years ago. She has a passionate about using data to underpin strategic decision making.  Her team developed the desktop housing stock condition survey methodology, which utilises local administrative data combined with national datasets to model the likely condition of homes in Derby and Derbyshire together with the impact this has on the health and wellbeing of residents.

Sue Edmonds, CEO, Capital Letters

Sue joined Capital Letters in June 2019 as its first CEO and first employee. Sue led the establishment of the company from a standing start to a fully functioning business growing to 85 staff. The Company has been constantly evolving and developing new services to meet the escalating challenges experienced with the PRS sector, contraction of supply and affordability. Sue has extensive experience in social housing; her driving force has been to make a positive difference, working innovatively and creatively to do so. Her career in housing has covered a range of roles – executive & non-executive – across the breadth of the sector including local government, housing associations and commercial companies. Capital Letters is a pan-London not-for-profit company, wholly owned by its London Borough members. Capital Letters’ purpose is to find affordable homes for families at risk of homelessness or homeless to enable member Boroughs to meet their responsibilities. The contraction of supply is making this ever more challenging and costly. Over the past four years, Sue has developed unique insight into the PRS market in London, landlord sentiment and the systemic issues facing all local authorities in managing their homelessness responsibilities.

Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns,  Propertymark

Propertymark is the UK’s leading professional body of property agents, with over 17,000 members. Timothy joined Propertymark in July 2015 and leads on the organisation’s policy and campaigns activity across Westminster, the devolved parliaments, and local authorities.

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