Ian Byrne MP questions Housing Minister on rented homes and rogue landlords

Today in Parliament, Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne told the Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, Eddie Doyle MP, that the words ‘levelling up’ will be ringing hollow in the minds of millions of tenants who live in poor conditions within the private rented sector.

Speaking during Parliamentary Questions on Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Mr Byrne told the House that according to the English Housing Survey (EHS), one in four properties in the private rented sector are now classed as ‘non-decent’.

The West Derby MP, who sits on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee, said that millions of private sector tenants are currently living in cold, insecure, unsafe and unaffordable homes. Mr Byrne also asked the minister to confirm if the Government’s overdue White Paper on Levelling Up will “have teeth” to resolve the crisis in the private rented sector and to finally hold rogue landlords to account - which, he said, does not currently happen.

Mr Byrne’s comments relate to a previously stated Government commitment to drive improvements in social and private rented homes and to publish a White Paper on reforms to the private rented sector in Spring 2022.

You can watch Ian Byrne MP speak on this issue in Parliament today in the video clip below: