Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they will give to the concerns of landlords raised in the Home Office’s recent review of Right to Rent that the scheme has the potential for discrimination.

Lord Bates

The Government has always been clear that the Right to Rent scheme would be rolled out across the country after phase one in Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton. The Prime Minister committed to do so in May this year. Home Office Science has carried out an evaluation of phase one. The findings of the evaluation have now been published and are informing implementation of the roll out of the scheme.

The evaluation was overseen by an expert panel consisting of representatives from landlords and letting agents associations, housing charities, local authorities and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, to enable concerns about the operation of the scheme to be taken into account.

The Home Office evaluation reported on mystery shopping research, conducted by independent contractors. This found that there were no major differences in prospective tenants’ access to accommodation between the Right to Rent phase one area and comparator areas, where the scheme was not running.