If there ever were a couple of policies the government desperately needs to give it a chance of being re-elected next year it is rental reform and leasehold. Both in their own way would make life a good deal less miserable for the younger voters who have drifted away from the party in recent years.
How depressing then that Rishi Sunak seems to have gone cold on them. It nastily exposes the Conservatives’ Achilles’ heel: its tendency to drop good and popular proposals in the face of staunch lobbying by those with vested interested.
By failing to fulfil its promise to abolish leasehold, the government is showing itself to be the prisoner of vested interests
The government has today reiterated proposals for a Rental Reform Bill which, it maintains, will do away with ‘no fault’ evictions. That would give private renters more of the security enjoyed by social housing tenants, ending the situation which exists at present where tenants can find themselves having to move home every six or 12 months because their tenancy agreement has come to an end.
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