The speech references many of the announcements made yesterday by the Department on Build to Rent and the recently announced Government PRS taskforce. Mr Prisk also referenced the Government amendment to the ERR Bill on letting agents:
"But of course the reputation of the majority can be damaged by a small minority, people who offer a poor service and engage in practices that are unacceptable. It's bad for letting agents, but also bad for landlords and tenants.
There have been a number of reports on this issue, from bodies such as RICS, Which? and the Office of Fair Trading, and some people have argued for a full panoply of new regulation to cover the lettings industry. I think that is an excessively burdensome approach, and could potentially stifle innovation and competition.
However, I do recognise there is an issue here, and we propose that government should do something about it. So that is why today the government has introduced an amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill giving powers to require letting agents to offer landlords and tenants access to approved redress schemes. This is being debated in the House of Commons today and I strongly hope that it will be passed, so that we can then get on and consult on the secondary legislation we will need to put this in place. The keyword here is consult: I would encourage you all to engage with this process, because we want to listen to what the industry has to say and get it right.
I encourage all of you to engage with this. Offering access to redress will not only give landlords and tenants an avenue to complain when things go wrong. It will also drive up the quality of service that letting agents offer, and benefit the whole market through changing perceptions of the private rented sector."
source: ARLA
