Private Tenancies

Many of the cases we feature on our website are the result of long investigations and complex work carried out by our casework team. But, we regularly turn around positive outcomes much more quickly for people who contact our daily housing helpline. In a recent example, Victoria used her knowledge of housing and consumer law to prevent homelessness for a young single mum who had been given notice to quit by her landlord.

NatWest has ended its policy of refusing to lend to landlords who provide tenancies to people in receipt of social security benefits. The bank announced that this policy change followed an "extensive review" of its buy-to-let policies.

The High Court of Justice in England has ruled that the government's Right to Rent scheme breaches human rights law and cannot be rolled out to Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland without further evaluation. 

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) argues that England should replace fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies with open-ended tenancies. It is argued that this measure, combined with restricting landlords to increasing rent only once a year and in line with consumer price inflation, will improve security for tenants in the private rented sector (PRS).