Black South West Network, with the support of the Bristol Fair Renting Campaign.
Executive Summary
With one-fifth of households in the United Kingdom utilising the private rented sector, it is more important than ever to ensure that their rights are protected to prevent tenancy insecurity, poverty, and inhospitable living conditions (McKee 2024). Racialised households are more likely to experience subpar living conditions and steeper rent increases, placing racialised communities disproportionately at the whim of the private rented sector.
The Renters’ Rights Bill seeks to increase the protections provided to renters by creating more secure tenancies, by encouraging scrutiny of poor landlord practices without fear of retaliation, and by increasing the standard of living in privately rented accommodation. The Bill also seeks to increase transparency and available information (and thus accountability) from the landlords’ side, by introducing a Private Rented Sector Database and a Private Rented Sector Ombudsman. However, the Bill fails to provide explicit rent price caps and must carefully consider the implications of landlords’ ability to refuse tenancies based on family size. BSWN’s policy brief recommends that legislators introduce race-based provisions that facilitate avenues of support for discriminated-against tenants that also recognise intersectionality, increased linguistic diversity in the tenants' complaint procedure, and explicit rental price caps to curb England & Wales’ housing crisis.
Introduction
The English Housing Survey shows that Black and Racially Minoritised households (hereby referred to as ‘racialised’) are more than twice as likely to rent from a private landlord compared to White British households. Research also finds that White British households are more likely to own their homes than all racialised households combined, with 60% of Black Caribbean and 80% of Black African households not owning their homes through either private renting or social housing (Institute of Race Relations, 2024). On top of this, they face greater struggles in paying rent (53% vs 44%) and experience higher rent increases (£131 vs £87) (Generation Rent, 2025).
While the UK has seen growing protections for racialised groups, the housing sector remains rife with inequalities that disproportionately impact racialised households–particularly as current legislation fails to adequately tackle the structural causes of housing insecurity. Indeed, racialised groups remain at greater risk of eviction, homelessness, subpar housing conditions, and predatory landlord practices. Racialised households are disproportionately affected by renting laws, so upcoming Acts addressing the private rented sector should explicitly protect these communities. This would prevent racialised renters from becoming destitute and ensure housing insecurity is tackled from the outset.
Black South West Network (BSWN) is a leading racial justice organisation based in Bristol and working throughout the southwest of England. Our work seeks to combat racial discrimination through policy, research, enterprise support, and cultural heritage initiatives. Our housing policy work (such as social housing council drop-ins, housing rights awareness campaigns with Shelter, and Living Rent Commission policy influencing) has given us unique insights into the experiences of racialised individuals in the housing sector. This BSWN Policy Brief presents recommendations that integrate a racial justice approach to the Renters’ Rights Bill, ensuring the legislation addresses housing insecurity in racialised communities.
Policy Overview
The Renters’ Rights Bill (hereby ‘the Bill’) represents a significant overhaul to the private rented sector of England, proposed by the Labour Party in 2024. Guidance to the Bill aims to enhance security, fairness, and quality of experience for tenants whilst also clarifying crucial laws for private sector landlords.
The Bill includes long-awaited abolishment of existing provisions, radical extensions of current legislation, and the formulation of new structures–all of which are aimed at strengthening the position of private renters.
The Bill’s key provisions include:
The Abolition of Section 21 Evictions: Now requiring a valid reason to evict tenants. Moreover, tenants will be empowered to critique bad practices of landlords without fear of retaliation.
The Conversion of Fixed Term Tenancies to Periodic Tenancies: This provides tenants with flexibility away from being ‘stuck’ in inadequate accommodations. In doing so, England will move away from a two-tier system of protections dependent on the type of tenancy someone is under. Also, two months’ notice is required for a tenant to terminate their tenancy.
Rent Increases and Scrutiny: Rent increases can only occur once a year and tenants are empowered to challenge unfair increases. A Private Rented Sector Ombudsman will also be introduced to provide a new avenue of accountability.
Expansion of Awaab’s Law to Private Rented Sector: Following the implementation of Awaab’s Law in Social Housing contexts, the Bill will now require private landlords to address serious health hazards (such as black mould) in a strict time frame.
Private Rented Sector Database: The Bill aims to create a centralised database of private sector properties and landlord information. This will ensure regulatory compliance, clear communication on policy changes, and transparency for tenants. The database will also serve as an intelligence tool, streamlining the identification of poor housing providers and improving enforcement of housing standards.
Prohibiting Rental Discrimination: The Bill targets rental discrimination, especially based on social security, by prohibiting overt practices (e.g., ‘no DSS’) and more subtle methods used by landlords. While landlords can still conduct final checks, decisions must focus on affordability, not on whether a tenant has children or receives welfare benefits.
Other provisions include the ending of rental bidding practices and tenants being able to request allowing pets within tenancy agreements.
Policy Implications
The Renters’ Rights Bill will have wide-reaching, positive implications across society:
Health & Wellbeing Implications for Racialised Renters
The Bill is likely to have a positive impact on the public health of racialised communities. A study published in BMC Public Health links housing insecurity to poor mental and physical health. Expanding Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector will help prevent cardiorespiratory illnesses caused by poor housing, such as black mould. Shelter found that racialised households are twice as likely to live in unfit conditions.
The transformation of fixed-term tenancies into periodic tenancies will improve the mental and physical health of racialised women facing domestic violence by removing barriers to leaving abusive situations. Studies show racialised women experience longer abuse due to cultural and ethnic barriers.
Abolishing Section 21 evictions will also improve health by reducing homelessness from unfair evictions. Crisis reports 44% of homeless people experience poor mental health, and 78% have poor physical health. Stronger protections against discrimination, especially for those on disability benefits, will decrease eviction rates and homelessness, helping tenants avoid declining health linked to housing instability.
However, the Bill may face challenges regarding overcrowding and family size. Although it bans discrimination based on children, tenancy refusals may still occur over health and safety concerns, especially for larger families, which are more common in racialised communities. Overcrowding could be used as a proxy for discrimination based on family size and race. Health and safety guidelines must balance risks while respecting cultural practices around larger families.
Economic Impact on Racialised Renters
With the introduction of a centralised property and landlord database, landlords may be incentivised to invest more into the housing sector. This could possibly mean that a landlord incurs greater expenses in the short term for greater savings in the long term by prioritising sustained repairs to housing conditions. This increased investment can theoretically improve a property’s living conditions, an important improvement for racialised households who are more likely to experience disrepair and dampness.
With racialised households at risk of greater rent hikes than White households, the Bill’s provision of being able to challenge unfair rent increases and limiting rent increases to once per year may empower tenants to point out race-based disparities and to advocate for fairer rent prices. This may also help stabilise average rent prices, particularly in areas of high demand, and prevent tenants from being ‘priced out’ of their area. Bristol, for example, features a high-density racialised population based in the centre.
However, these historically racialised neighbourhoods and their tenants are steadily pushed to the margins of the city as rent prices increase alongside the city’s demand for housing. Limitation to once per year will also ensure greater financial predictability, financial stability, and more disposable income for racialised households. Paired with the introduction of an Ombudsman, consumer confidence may increase as tenants may feel more secure against predatory landlord practices.
However, this Bill fails to support calls for rental price caps. Which means that there is no legal limit on how much a landlord can increase the rent. Whilst there are greater mechanisms of scrutiny to prevent this, it does not provide assistance to the wider economic contexts that make it harder for racialised households to afford rent. According to the Institute of Race Relations, racialised individuals are more likely to experience precarious work and low-paying wages. With no existing rent caps and increasingly stagnating wages, racialised individuals may still find themselves in financial hardship.
Social and Educational Equity Implications
The Bill’s focus on combating social security discrimination also tackles an important aspect of racial discrimination. The Race Equality Foundation highlights that racialised communities are more likely to experience poverty, making them more dependent on state social security benefits.
Additionally, BSWN’s report on Bristol households during the cost-of-living crisis shows that racialised communities tend to have larger families on average. The Bill’s increased protections against both family size and social security discrimination help prevent these factors from being used as proxies for race or ethnicity, reducing opportunities for landlords to discriminate against racialised individuals. This, however, does not prevent health & safety from being leveraged as a rationale behind implicit discrimination.
In helping stabilise rent price increases and adding additional barriers to unfair evictions, household security will increase. Research conducted by Dame Rachel de Souza (Children’s Commissioner for England) identifies a link between temporary accommodation (and thus housing insecurity overall) and poor GCSE attainment amongst secondary school children. This is particularly acute for racialised children who already face barriers to quality education such as disproportionate exclusions and racist bias amongst teachers and students.
Policy Recommendations
It must be stated that the positive impact of the Bill will certainly benefit the lives of racialised households. Changes are required to sufficiently protect racialised households from more pervasive systemic forms of disparity within housing that the Bill fails to address. Whilst the following recommendations push for changes that may face opposition, there are legal, economic, and moral justifications for the pursuit of change.
Legally, the United Kingdom is a ratified signatory on the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which includes the Right to Adequate Housing and provisions protecting against arbitrary and forced interference/evictions, equal and non-discriminatory access to such adequate housing, but also adequate affordability, cultural adequacy and habitability of such housing. In its most recent Observational Comments, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has rightfully chastised the United Kingdom for its currently inequitable housing sector.
Pursuing racial justice in housing also has economic benefits, unlocking the financial potential of racialised households by reducing tenure insecurity and rent prices, increasing opportunities, and boosting disposable income that could be used to reinvest back into the economy through business ventures and patronage.
Explicit inclusion of rent control provisions to provide more strident protections against high rent that exacerbates economic inequality amongst racialised households, who already disproportionately rent. Even with the exclusion of Section 21 from legislation, landlords could still force Black and Racially Minoritised tenants out of their homes through unaffordable rent hikes. Rent controls afford true tenant security.
Clearer avenues for support for tenants facing discrimination through more robust legal and advocacy support in the private rented sector. This would feature the Ombudsman in a wider system of support, with particular recognition of intersectional discrimination for those who are racialised and disabled, for example.
Stronger penalties for landlords who fail to adhere to the new legislation. As of the moment, a landlord’s first-instance contravention of the Bill will be a penalty of £7,000 and up to £40,000 for repeat instances. To ensure that no serious hazards occur to begin with, the first-instance penalty should be increased.
Ensure linguistic diversity within the Private Rented Sector Ombudsman Association. This will ensure that language is not a primary barrier to accessing justice through this new accountability mechanism. In catering to numerous languages, racialised/migrant private tenants can advocate for themselves confidently in their primary language
Record instances whereby a landlord discriminated against a tenant on the Private Rented Sector Database. This will ensure that prospective tenants are fully informed of dangers to their safety and housing security and provide them opportunities to avoid landlords with poor track records as it pertains to racial discrimination and other forms of discrimination.
Require mandatory training and education workshops for landlords to complete that will teach them anti-discrimination laws, best practice, tenant rights, proper tenant care, professional communication, and the importance of safe and healthy living standards. This will ensure that legal obligations are sufficiently understood and allows landlords to be held accountable to higher standards of care. These training sessions should also be required to be refreshed periodically.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Renter’s Rights Bill offers a vital reform to the private rented housing sector, addressing long-standing issues that have left renters vulnerable to retaliation. By abolishing Section 21 evictions, introducing a private rented sector ombudsman, limiting rent increases to once a year, and creating a landlord-property database, the Bill has the potential to significantly improve conditions for many, including racialised households. However, to truly support racialised renters, additional provisions are needed, such as rent caps, better avenues for discrimination redress, linguistic diversity among ombudsman services, and stronger landlord accountability for discrimination. BSWN urges policymakers to ensure the Bill recognises the unique challenges faced by racialised communities and includes protections against exploitation, access to justice, and accountability.
References
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-024-19735-9#citeas
https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/homelessness-knowledge-hub/health-and-wellbeing/