MPs complain that rental reform questions go unanswered

The Select Committee that shadows the work of Michael Gove’s Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is complaining that its report into rental sector reform appears to have been ignored. 

The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says that it is a well-established convention that government departments should respond to select committee reports within two months.

Although a longer delay may be permissible in some circumstances, the committee claims “it is standard practice and common courtesy for such delays to be communicated to the committee concerned with as much notice as is possible.”

However, in this session of parliament Gove’s department has not responded to any of the select committee’s seven reports within seven months of publication and has not explained the reason for any delay.

The committee is chaired by Labour MP Clive Betts but has a Conservative majority on its membership.

The committee appears particularly upset at the absence of a response to its work and questions on rental sector reform, which was published in February. 

On May 3, Gove pledged that the response would be published “alongside the introduction of the Renters Reform Bill” but this was introduced into Parliament in May without such a response. “We have pressed the Department as to when a response will be forthcoming on a number of occasions and have received some conflicting replies” says the committee.

Now the committee has published what it calls “a special report” on the absence of a response and it is insisting that Gove provides the formal response within two weeks.