'Change Right To Rent' new Home Secretary is urged by trade body

The new Home Secretary Sajid Javid is being urged to look again at the Right To Rent policy and produce “a more practical, workable system.”

The request has come from the National Landlords Association which has wasted no time in writing to Javid - who was appointed only on Monday morning - to outline its concerns regarding Right to Rent.

The NLA says there is justification to review the policy in the light of the government’s own figures which show that it costs an additional £4.7m per year. 

“In his time as Housing and Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid worked with the NLA to support the private rented sector” explains Richard Lambert, chief executive of the association. 

“We have reminded Mr Javid of the effects the Right to Rent scheme has had on would-be and vulnerable tenants, its excessive checks and lack of monitoring, and the additional cost it is placing on an already pressurised sector” he adds.

“There is now an opportunity for us to work with Mr Javid, and with new Housing Secretary James Brokenshire, to look again and come up with a more practical, workable system than the one we have.”

Some observers believe that Javid - who has said his number one priority as Home Secretary will be to resolve the Windrush issue - has struck a more conciliatory tone than his predecessor, Amber Rudd, over the broad approach of government to migrants.

Since its introduction Right To Rent has been widely criticised, inside and outside the lettings industry, for its reliance on letting agents and landlords to act - as some see it - as unpaid servants of the UK Border Agency.