Generation Rent has called for private rented homes to be brought into public or tenant ownership in its list of demands for the next government.

The campaigning tenant group wants to give councils and community-led housing schemes first refusal on private rented properties entering the market.

Landlords would have to prove their intention to move or sell to a court as part of the process, with all evictions discretionary, along with a two year no-let period on any property which has seen a landlord evict their tenant.

Generation Rent’s manifesto believes councils should carry out random inspections to ensure compliance of the proposed property portal and that rent controls should be introduced in a sensitive manner, accompanied by a massive increase in public housebuilding.

Passporting

Among other suggestions are a passporting system allowing tenants to automatically transfer the value of their deposit to their next tenancy and a rule that schemes should release uncontested elements of the deposit to tenants as soon as the tenancy ends.

Regulations requiring landlords to bring private rented homes up to a minimum EPC rating of C must be announced without further delay and robustly enforced, says the group, with local authorities able to reclaim homes through compulsory purchase orders where landlords fail to meet these requirements.

“Means-tested financial support should be available to landlords to assist them in meeting this target, but this must be paired with protections relating to the tenant, who must see the benefit of these improvements,” it adds.

Standards

Tenants should be able to claim rent back from landlords who fail to meet the minimum standards of energy efficiency, with this coming automatically when there is evidence these standards are not met.

It concludes: “We must disincentivise landlordism to ensure that our housing system meets the needs of people over the interests of private profit, investors or financial capital.”