Nancy Platts, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown is disappointed that Simon Kirby MP failed to support an amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill that would have banned letting agent fees for tenants.
Nancy wrote to Simon Kirby personally to ask him to support the amendment.
Nancy said: “Conservative MP Simon Kirby has missed an opportunity to stand up for people who live in rented accommodation in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven and they will rightly feel let down.
“If you buy your home, most estate agents will not charge you fees, but people in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven who rent are given no protection and they get charged £350 on average. That’s a lot of money for a lot of people and that’s why Labour will legislate to ban these rip-off charges by letting agents.”
“Nine million people are living in rented homes today, more than a million families, and more than two million children. Nancy says that while tenants across Brighton and Peacehaven face rip-off fees from lettings agents and insecure tenancies, Labour has announced the biggest change in a generation to make the system fairer for renters.”
Nancy maintains that tenants are hit by huge upfront costs through unfair letting agent fees. A survey of letting agents found that 94 per cent imposed additional charges on tenants on top of the deposit and rent in advance. Fees are extremely variable, but on average tenants are forced to pay £355 to their lettings agents every time they move house with some paying as much as £500. These costs she claims put additional pressure on renters with 54 per cent of people surveyed saying they faced financial difficulties covering fees.
She says the amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill gave all MPs the chance to stand with renters and make a real difference to their lives by banning letting fees to tenants.
The next Labour government say they will pass legislation to ban letting agent fees for tenants and will introduce longerterm tenancies with predictable rents.
“In a written response to Nancy, Simon Kirby, said: “Thank you for writing to me about Ed Miliband’s latest scheme for rent controls and letting agents fees.
“Industry experts are clear that Labour’s scheme for rent controls would lead to less investment and fewer homes to rent. This would force up rents, as people chase fewer and fewer properties.
“Similarly, your Party’s plans on letting agents fees will, according to Shelter and other housing experts, lead to higher rents. This is because agents will simply charge landlords higher fees, who will pass on the cost to tenants in turn.
“It is for this reason that I have not supported Labour’s amendment today – to have done so would have been to vote for higher rents and higher charges. This would make life more difficult for people who rent.
“By contrast, Conservatives in Government is taking real action to make sure tenants are protected and get a fair deal. We are:
1) Changing the law to make it easier for tenants to get their complaints addressed.
2) Requiring letting agents to publish all their fees and charges, so that the minority of rogue agents can no longer impose unreasonable, hidden charges. If they don’t publish their fees they will be fined.
3) As part of our long-term economic plan, investing over £1 billion to build thousands of new, good quality homes to rent.
4) Helping people to get on the housing ladder through the Help to Buy scheme, which has already enabled over 27,000 families to achieve their dreams and buy their own home.
“I support measures that make it easier for people to rent and also deal with the small minority of rogue letting agents and landlords.
“But, I won’t support Labour’s political gimmicks designed to grab headlines. Because in the long-term they would just hurt people who rent.”
Purna Sen, the Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion sent a similar letter to Caroline Lucas the Green MP for Pavilion asking her to support the same ammendment.
In a written response, Caroline said: “Many thanks for your letter asking me to support an amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill about the rip-off fees that tenants in Brighton Pavilion face.
“I doubt you’ll be surprised that we are on the same side on this one! Indeed, I am a top sponsor of the amendment that you ask me to support in your letter. My support was already in the public domain here.
“As you’ll know, Brighton and Hove has an expanding private rented sector which already includes 28% of all homes in our City, well above the national average of 16.5%.
“It is plain the Government do not care about ‘generation rent’. Our City faces a grave housing crisis, which is why I have been working to support tenants’ rights in Parliament since day one. For example, as you may know, I tabled a Landlord Accreditation Bill in support of Shelter’s work. As MP for Brighton Pavilion, rights for people in the private rented sector and a sustainable programme to build and repair council housing are things I have consistently pushed for.
“There are some good landlords but unfortunately rogue landlords are still all too common, as I know from my constituency surgeries. What people need and want is to be protected from rip-off fees, to have security of tenure with 5 and 10 year tenancies and for rents to be kept under control. Many want access to council housing but the stock just isn’t there.
“Affordable housing stock isn’t available because of the failure of successive Governments to build the homes we need and to protect the stock the taxpayer once owned. ‘Right to Buy’ takes no account of the ‘Right to Rent’ which must surely come first. We now have the appalling situation where we have given away our housing stock and we are now paying housing benefit to Landlords at extortionate market rates for good houses that once belonged to the taxpayer. It is a scandal.
“To address this point, yesterday, I put down New Clause 8 to the Deregulation Bill to replace homes lost through right to buy. I have reproduced the text of the amendment at the end of this letter, which the National Housing Federation are backing. I’d be interested to know if you support it. It would be really great if you could speak to those front bench Labour MPs that you know and ask them to support it, for the benefit of the people who are trying to rent in Brighton Pavilion. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if I can provide any further briefing on the amendment.
“I hope you will join me in calling for a real central government commitment to council housing, funded by direct capital investment, so individuals and families can stay in Brighton and Hove; so they are not at the mercy of rip-off landlords; so they can put down roots and not be forced to move their children from school to school.
“I hope you’ll be able to get colleagues to back NC 8 – I’ll keep an eye out!”
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