(This article was published in the Brighton Argus today – 4th December 2023) Over the last two weeks in Parliament there has been a significant number of discussions for the “Renters (Reform) Bill” organised by a Commons General Committee which involves seventeen MP members. There is only one Sussex member in that group, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown who is one of six Labour members. There are ten Conservative MPs and one Liberal Democrat MP. This important Bill has been discussed for many years with the first presentation in May this year and it was published as

to make provision changing the law about rented homes, including provision abolishing fixed term assured tenancies and assured shorthold tenancies; imposing obligations on landlords and others in relation to rented homes and temporary and supported accommodation; and for connected purposes.

It was discussed for its second reading just over a month ago in late October, organised by the Government minister Michael Gove. There were a number of MPs that took part including two Sussex MPs, Lloyd and Caroline Lucas who made important contributions. Several MPs that are not part of the Committee have chaired the events over the last two weeks. James Gray the Conservative participated and a week earlier he had commented in Parliament with

Welcome to the first evidence session of the Renters (Reform) Bill Committee. In particular, I welcome our first panel: Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter; Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive officer of Citizens Advice; and Darren Baxter, the principal policy adviser on housing and land for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Another charity called Renters’ Reform Coalition published a piece on ‘X’ formerly Twitter on the day after the first session and they stated

Discussing the Government’s amendment for a new ground for possession for PRS landlord’s operating in the student market, @lloyd_rm questions the logic behind the need for a special student carve out, quoting @nusuk ’s scepticism on the matter.

The nusuk are the National Union of Students.

Jacob Young from the Conservatives and Matthew Pennycock from Labour have spoken the most about all aspects of the Bill and the different clauses. Based on the rest of the fifteen MP’s Lloyd contributed the next largest contributions. There are two other Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrat MP who contributed. Tragically nine Conservatives and two Labour said very little. However, the voting was very challenging. All of the clauses that were created were adopted by the Labour and often the Liberal Democrat MP. Most of the Conservative MPs rejected them all. None of the clauses were accepted. It was very disturbing that so little was achieved. It is very disappointing that the important work from the Labour Party which involved Lloyd and one of his colleagues has not been recognised. During the second reading of this Bill last month Lloyd included

On the enhanced grounds for antisocial behaviour, I have one constituent who has been evicted because their baby was crying too much, and another who has been evicted because her husband was beating her too loudly. Does the Secretary of State not recognise that the grounds need to be discretionary ones on which the courts can deliberate, not mandatory ones? Otherwise, it will be a handle for abusers to use.

Michael Gove responded back

I very much take the hon. Gentleman’s point. I do not believe that either of those two cases would count as antisocial behaviour under our proposals, but we need to ensure that we are clear about what constitutes antisocial behaviour liable to lead to eviction and what is, as in those cases, either a preposterous claim or an example of domestic abuse that the police should be investigating.

Let us hope that some more of the clauses can be raised for approval again later before the Bill is completed, perhaps with members of the House of Lords.

Last Monday, the “e-petitions 624876 and 643611 relating to legislation in respect of dangerous dogs” session was organised by Nicholas Fletcher the Don Valley MP. The petitions reflected significant numbers of people across Sussex but sadly none of the Sussex MPs took part in the session which is very disappointing.

On Tuesday three voting settings two of which listed as the “Delegated Legislation — Trade unions”, the first one was defined as “Delegated Legislation — Trade union and Labour Relations”. Most of the Conservatives but not Henry Smith from Crawley and Jeremy Quin the Minister and MP for Horsham, endorsed all three items. Labour party MP’s and Caroline Lucas from the Green Party rejected them all. The group that did not vote at all were all of the Liberal Democrat members. Interestingly one Conservative MP Stephen McPartland the MP for Stevenage, rejected all three items. On Wednesday there were nine votes. The first, “Deferred Division – Strikes: Minimum Service Levels” with most Conservatives voting Aye, and the majority of other groups voting No. Only Henry Smith did not vote for this and he did not vote for any other items. The other eight items referred to “Data Protection and Digital Information Bill”. The first six were rejected by the Conservatives and approved by most other groups. The final two items were approved by Conservatives and rejected by only few Labour MPs. It was fascinating that Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Gillian Keegan and Andrew Griffith who are both conservative ministers only voted for one or two of those first items and Peter Kyle only voted for five of the six items.