The pomp and circumstance of the King’s speech during the state opening of Parliament sees the formalised beginning of the new parliament and a new legislative programme. Whilst the new Government is hoping for an increase in the economy’s growth rate to help fund the across the board “National renewal” that they wish to see, for the moment the path to making a difference looks like it will be via regulation with nearly 40 new legislative bills laid out in the speech.

The Renters’ Reform Bill, drafted under the previous Government but not passed into Law, has made a type of comeback - now called the Renters’ Rights Bill - with King Charles saying “legislation will be introduced to give greater rights and protections for renters”. A lot of the necessary groundwork has already been done so this bill could progress relatively quickly.

The only definite rental reform proposals mentioned in the speech were the banning of Section 21 “no fault” evictions and a consequent reform of the Section 8 grounds for possession. Both were delayed when Michael Gove was Secretary of State down to the view that the currently dire logistics of the Court system would first need to be improved to enable it to cope with the administrative pressures entailed by these two reforms alone.

However, the background briefing notes to the speech (see pages 69-71) do flesh out the Government’s wider plans for reform of the private rented sector (PRS). In his introduction the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, stated the Government “will make sure everyone can grow up in the secure housing they deserve”, that “tough new protections for renters” will be introduced and standards will be raised “to make sure homes are safe for people to live in”.

Beyond scrapping S.21 evictions, the new bill will also ban “rental bidding wars by landlords and agents”; apply the decent homes standard to the PRS; and, apply ‘Awaab’s law’ to the PRS setting legal “expectations” about the timeframes within which PRS landlords must rectify “serious hazards” in homes and make those homes safe.

The creation of a “digital private rented sector database” is confirmed (for use by landlords, tenants and councils) and councils will “be able to use the database to target enforcement where it is needed most”.

The bill will also introduce “New investigatory powers [which] will make it easier for councils to identify and fine unscrupulous landlords and drive bad actors out of the sector.”

Other proposed reforms held over from the previous Renters’ Reform bill include the ability to challenge rent increases, anti discrimination measures and an Ombudsman service for the PRS.

As always with legislation, implementation will be key. There is no mention of scrapping selective licensing or additional licensing schemes and so we must wait to see how the new database and the new investigatory powers for councils will integrate with existing council enforcement tools such as property licensing schemes.

Selective and additional licensing allow councils to carry out multiple proactive property inspection programmes during the period that a scheme runs for (thus evidencing real life property standards and management) whereas the national register will be a documentary database. Any new investigatory powers will have to rely on more than councils simply waiting for tenants to make complaints about a landlord or their property such that any property inspection will only be reactive.

Thus it's unlikely to be an “either, or” situation with these ‘tools’ but a question of each of them being included in the whole enforcement “toolkit” available to councils if the Government plan to truly “transform” the PRS is to come to fruition within this parliament’s lifecycle or indeed, the next.