§ 8. Mr. MealeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proposals he has to counter the activities of bad landlords in the private rented sector.
§ Mr. RidleyThe Government significantly strengthened the law against harassment in the Housing Act 1988.
§ Mr. MealeAs there will certainly be a future Labour Government, has the right hon. Gentleman noted the Labour party's commitment to tenants in private sector accommodation to provide additional protection by offering them the opportunity to opt for decent landlords in non-resident properties? Is the right hon. Gentleman prepared immediately to offer that to tenants in the private sector?
§ Mr. RidleyThe hon. Gentleman is too early in that he predicts something that will not happen, yet too late in that we have already taken legislative steps to improve the law against harassment. The offence of
Harassing a tenant knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that this was likely to cause him to leave his homeis an improvement on previous law.The hon. Gentleman probably is not aware that there is a new right to civil damages effective from 9 June based on the landlord's profit from illegal eviction. In a case brought by the Hammersmith and Fulham tenancy relations department a landlord was put in prison for 28 days under the new legislation. I can hardly think that the hon. Gentleman is dissatisfied with that.
§ Sir Geoffrey FinsbergAs the other half of the coin of private landlords is public landlords, is my right hon. Friend satisfied that enough is being done to deal with bad public landlords such as Camden council and others?
§ Mr. RidleyI agree with my hon. Friend, who knows that we are continuing to take measures both to get publicly owned stock properly and fully used and to improve the standard of management of some local authorities, which leaves a lot to be desired.
§ Mr. SoleyWhy is it that the tenant of a Mr. Rachman or a Mr. Hoogstraten cannot have the right to change his landlord?
§ Mr. RidleyThe hon. Gentleman knows full well that the public sector is not in competition with the private sector in many areas, and that shows very much in local authorities' service to their tenants.
§ Mr. LeighDoes not the history of well-intentioned efforts by Government since the first world war to regulate the private rented sector prove beyond peradventure two economic facts of life—that shortages raise prices and that Governments create shortages?
§ Mr. RidleyMy hon. Friend is right. The effect of the Rent Acts since the end of the first world war has deprived large numbers of people of the opportunity to have the sort of accommodation that they wanted. One of the great achievements of this Government is that that restriction on supply has been ended, at least for new tenants.