Labour had planned to introduce a number of measures to the private rented sector, which will now not be brought forward by the coalition Government, including a national register, regulation of letting and managing agents, and compulsory written tenancy agreements.
Shapps said he believed that the necessary legal framework was already in place to protect the rights of both tenants and landlords, and has previously said that a national register would not encourage investment in the private rented sector.
He said: “Today I make a promise to good landlords across the country: the Government has no plans to create any burdensome red tape and bureaucracy, so you are able to continue providing a service to your tenants.
“But for the bad landlords, I am putting councils on alert to use the range of powers already at their disposal to make sure tenants are properly protected.”
David Salusbury, chairman of the National Landlords Association (NLA) welcomed the announcement, saying the national register had been “well-meaning but flawed”.
Salusbury said: “We are very pleased that the Government is rejecting previous attempts to introduce a register: it was the wrong way to go about raising standards in the private-rented sector and would not have rooted out rogue landlords. In fact, we believe the likely consequence could have been to penalise the law-abiding, while at the same time driving the worst landlords under the radar.”
Matt Hutchinson, director of Spareroom.co.uk, added: “Clearly, steps have to be taken to reign in the few rogue landlords out there, but heavy handed over-regulation of the whole sector was never the right approach. Letting local authorities regulate their own areas makes sense, so long as departments have the right level of training to deal with the issues and landlords know where to go to get definitive answers to their questions.”
