The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, and the home secretary, Suella Braverman, are among five cabinet ministers who earn at least £10,000 a year renting out housing, according to a new snapshot of parliament’s landlords. In all, 68 Conservative MPs – nearly one in five – are currently landlords, according to research by a campaign group, 38 Degrees, provoking calls for ministers finally to implement a 2019 government promise to reform private renting by scrapping no-fault evictions and improving tenants’ rights. Hunt has declared he operates seven flats in Southampton, while Braverman, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, and Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, all declared one rental property in the latest House of Commons members’ register of financial interests. Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, declared a flat in Shepherd’s Bush and a share in a cottage in Gloucestershire, both producing more than £10,000 a year in income. The study, covering the 12 months up to 17 April this year, included properties that had been sold within the period, such as Chalk’s Shepherd’s Bush flat. It counted 87 MP landlords – more than 13% of the Commons – of whom 53 claimed rental income from one home and 34 from two or more properties. By contrast, only 4% of the UK population declare income from renting property.
On the Labour frontbench, David Lammy, Emily Thornberry and Lucy Powell are all landlords. Overall, MPs could be earning as much as £2.2m a year from renting out homes, the research found. “The perspectives of those who profit from renting may be more prominent in parliament than those of the tenants who remain at the mercy of this broken system,” 38 Degrees said. In 2019, the then prime minister, Theresa May, promised to scrap no-fault evictions, and later that year Boris Johnson pledged in the Conservative party general election manifesto “a better deal for renters”, including the eviction ban. Nearly 47,000 households have since been threatened with section 21 no-fault eviction notices, official homelessness figures show. Landlord groups have pushed back against the changes, arguing that, combined with rising interest rates, they could lead many to quit the sector, worsening housing shortages, unless they had an alternative way of reclaiming possession of properties. Ministers published a rental reform white paper in summer 2022, but with six different housing ministers since 2021, draft legislation has yet to go before parliament for debate. The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Michael Gove, said on Wednesday that the draft bill would be published next week and would “change the way the relationship between landlords and tenants works, providing tenants with new protection, which should ensure they are better protected against arbitrary rent increases”.
Close to 40,000 people have signed a petition demanding Gove “keep this promise” to implement the reforms. Matthew McGregor, the chief executive of 38 Degrees, said: “Whilst we make no inherent criticism of those politicians who make money from renting property, we highlight their extra duty, to their tenants as well as their constituents, to bring forward reform without delay.” Conditions for private renters are becoming increasingly relevant at the ballot box. The 2021 census showed the number of households renting had more than doubled in the last two decades in England and Wales, to over 5m, one in five of the total. In England, there are currently more than 7,000 no-fault evictions a year, figures show. In 2021, nearly 800,000 private rented homes in England failed to meet the government’s “decent homes standard”. “With MPs almost four times more likely to be landlords than the rest of the population, and with eight cabinet members and nearly one in five Conservative MPs earning rental income, we highlight the need for tenants’ voices to be heard at the top of government,” McGregor said. A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the government was “absolutely committed to delivering a fairer deal for renters”. They said: “That’s why next week we will bring forward the renters reform bill, which will include a ban on no-fault evictions, so that all tenants have greater security in their homes and are empowered to challenge poor conditions and unreasonable rent rises. We are also introducing a decent homes standard for the private rented sector for the first time ever, which will make sure privately rented homes are safe and decent.” • This article was amended on 5 May 2023 to include the time period covered by the study, and to note that it included properties that had been sold within the period, such as Alex Chalk’s flat in Shepherd’s Bush.