Devonshires and Five Paper host joint conference on the changing legislative environment housing providers are facing

On Thursday 11 September, we were delighted to jointly host a conference with Five Paper: “Risks and Opportunities for Housing Providers created by the New (and impending) Legislative Environment”. 

Despite tube strikes and heavy rainfall, we presented a well-attended conference with four sessions on a variety of topics including Awaab’s Law, Commonhold and the challenges presented by LAFRA, as well as an update on the impact of the new Crime and Policing Bill. We finished with a lively panel discussion picking up on various points from the sessions.

Five Key Takeaways

1) Renters' Rights Bill

The Renters’ Rights Bill returned to the House of Commons on Monday 8 September during which MPs considered and disagreed with a number of the Lord’s proposed amendments. There is now a period of “ping pong” between the houses, and we remain unsure whether the Bill will receive Royal Assent before the House of Commons breaks on 16 September. 

As the Bill is seeking to abolish Section 21 “no-fault” evictions, the amendments contained in the Bill which extend existing and introduce new grounds of possession are of particular importance. These amendments can be found at Schedule 1 “Changes to grounds for possession” of the current version of the Bill and were discussed in detail during the session. These amendments relate to both mandatory and discretionary possession grounds applicable in a variety of different scenarios, including expiry of rent-to-buy, supported accommodation, redevelopment and rent arrears. 

2) Awaab's Law

Ahead of the planned implementation of Awaab’s Law on 27 October 2025, the key new requirements social landlords will need to comply with were discussed along with the challenges that they will face and what policies need to be prepared. This included how landlords deal with the strict timescales for investigation, categorisation of hazards, provision of written reports and timings for the commencement of works.

It was clear that the imminent implementation of Awaab’s Law was the most-pressing issue the attendees and their organisations are facing. Ensuring systems and policies are put in place in time is a clear priority. Further, there was discussion about housing providers’ concern that they may face a significant increase in housing conditions claims following implementation where hazards have been incorrectly categorised as “significant” or “emergency” hazards, thus triggering the enhanced timescales for response. 

3) The Crime and Policing Bill

The Crime and Policing Bill is currently scheduled to have its Second Reading within the House of Lords on 16 October and contains an array of measures to assist housing providers in combating anti-social behaviour and illegal activity within their properties. Key measures which were discussed include: Respect Orders, Youth Injunctions & Housing Injunctions, Closure Orders, and Cuckooing. Of particular interest to attendees was the fact that the Bill will extend the power to obtain Closure Notices to registered providers of social housing, as opposed to just the police and local authorities as it is currently. 

4) LAFRA 2024

The session on LAFRA took the attendees through a detailed discussion of the provisions currently in force including examination of provisions in relation to rentcharges and BSA 2022, provisions removing two-year qualifying criteria for certain lease extensions and freehold purchases, and changes to the Right to Manage. The fact that the majority of the provisions in LAFRA 2024 have not yet come into force and will require secondary legislation to be passed was also discussed. 

The current on-going consultation regarding proposals to implement aspects contained within LAFRA 2024 relating to reform of the law of service charges was explored in detail. Discussion was had on the proposed new Annual Report, and how additional requirements from these proposals will need housing providers to plan their resources effectively. Our clients were encouraged to involve themselves in this consultation before its closure on 26 September, to have their say and to help frame the proposed reforms. Open Consultation.

5) Commonhold

With regard to Commonhold, the session focused on March’s White Paper and whether this would be enough to achieve the Government’s stated aim of making commonhold the default tenure for flat ownership or whether additional measures would be required. Four key potential measures were considered: a ban on the sale of new leasehold flats; the increased regulation and expansion of the residential property management sector; the integration of shared ownership into the Commonhold model; and addressing the insurance market’s concerns. 

Reform is clearly still a while off yet but numerous areas of concern about the proposed new model were discussed including worries that Commonhold might be an over-engineered solution and the reality that, as shown in the RTM sphere, whilst people initially like the idea of controlling their own building, this requires significant time and effort over long periods often meaning individual unit owners fail to stay engaged over the long-term. 

For more information, please contact Mark Foxcroft or Rebecca Brady.