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Background to the Private Rental Sector
Continued from previous article - Background to the Private Rental Sector - 1915-1960
Period 1961-1980
During the early 1960s the increasing shortage of rented accommodation, particularly in the cities, became acutely felt. Housing gradually rose towards the top of the political agenda, as homelessness and harassment gained the attention of the media. A committee of enquiry into housing in London was set up (the Milner-Holland Committee).
The general election of 1964 was fought partly on housing issues. The incoming Labour government introduced a programme to 'roll back' decontrol. The Protection from Eviction Act was passed in 1964, and 'regulated tenancies' and the 'fair rent' scheme were introduced in 1965. A consolidating Rent Act - still based largely on the Act of 1920 - was passed in 1968. Rent control and security of tenure applied to most unfurnished tenants.
By the early 1970s however, it was becoming clear that the scope of security of tenure was gradually being eroded as landlords ceased to create unfurnished tenancies, offering instead furnished lettings which attracted very limited security. On 14 August 1974 a new Rent Act came into force, substantially extending security of tenure by including furnished tenancies in the scheme. The Act also created the 'resident landlord' exception from full security.
The Rent Act 1977 was a consolidating measure which contained virtually no new law. The manifest deficiencies of the earlier legislation were incorporated into the new statute. Nonetheless lawyers and advisers in the mid 1970s became involved with activity 'around the edges' of the Rent Act as much as with its own provisions, as landlords relied increasingly on licences, holiday lets and company lettings to evade security of tenure.
The use of these devices was approved by the courts so that by the end of the decade landlords had available, particularly in London, what was in effect a 'free market', not subject to rent control or security of tenure.
Notwithstanding the development of this free market, the evidence indicates that following the extension of security of tenure in 1974, the rate of decline of the sector decreased slightly as landlords, found it more difficult to recover possession from furnished tenants.
A change of government in 1979 led almost immediately to more intervention. The Housing Act 1980 introduced two new forms of letting designed to attract landlords into the sector; the protected shorthold tenancy and the assured tenancy, the latter available only to 'approved' landlords. Both innovations were signs of things to come.
The original assured tenancy was in form similar to business tenancies under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and indicated the Government's determination to allow market forces a greater role in the sector.
continued...
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