The newly passed Renters’ Rights Act represents the most significant reform of the English private rented sector in more than a generation. After years of campaigning by renters and housing organisations, the balance of power will begin to shift in a housing system that for a long time has overwhelmingly favoured landlords. From 1 May 2026, private renters will finally gain protection from section 21 no-fault evictions, alongside a package of new rights designed to improve security, fairness and stability in the sector.
This moment deserves to be recognised and celebrated. However, there is a risk that the Act is viewed as the final destination rather than a key step on a longer journey. The enormous scale of the crisis facing private renters - from spiralling rents to unsafe living conditions - means that this legislation alone will not be a cure-all.
Broadly speaking, the challenges ahead fall into two categories. The first concerns how well the Renters’ Rights Act is implemented, enforced and supported in practice. The second relates to the issues that the Act does not address, where it fails to tackle some of the most harmful features of the private renting system. Both will determine whether this legislation delivers lasting change or falls short of its promise.
What is Changing for Renters in May
From 1st May 2026, the private rented sector will undergo a fundamental shift. At the heart of the reform is the abolition of section 21 no-fault evictions, which for decades have allowed landlords to evict renters without requiring a reason. This change alone will dramatically improve security for millions of renters, lessening their fear of eviction, making it easier for them to hold landlords to account and enabling them to put down roots in their communities.
Alongside this, the Act introduces a system of open-ended tenancies, in which contracts become rolling rather than fixed-term, and reforms eviction grounds to ensure that landlords can only regain possession in clearly defined and justified circumstances, such as selling a property or moving in themselves – alongside a longer notice period for tenants. The Act also reduces some of the most common barriers to accessing a home, including: banning discrimination against renters with children and those in receipt of benefits; limiting rent in advance to one month; stopping unfair refusal of a request to keep a pet; and ending rental bidding wars.
These changes reflect many of the core asks put forward by the Renters’ Reform Coalition and represent a decisive shift away from insecurity as the defining feature of renting in England.
Measures Enabled by the Act but Not Yet Delivered
While much of the Act will come into force in May, some of its most important elements are still dependent on future government action and further, secondary legislation. The Act creates powers for the Government to introduce a national database of private landlords, apply both Awaab’s Law and the Decent Homes Standard to privately rented homes, and establish a new private rented sector ombudsman service.
If delivered well, these changes could significantly improve landlord accountability and poor housing conditions. A comprehensive landlord database could support enforcement and help renters understand who owns and manages their home. Awaab’s Law would introduce legally enforceable deadlines for landlords to carry out urgent repairs, protecting renters from prolonged exposure to mould and other serious hazards. The Decent Homes Standard would set a baseline for housing quality, while an ombudsman could offer renters a more accessible route to escalate issues and receive redress.
However, there are real concerns about the timescales for introducing these measures. The proposed timeline for applying the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector stretches into the mid-2030s, leaving millions of renters in substandard housing for years to come. Similarly, there is still no confirmed timeline for extending Awaab’s Law, despite the urgent health risks it is intended to address. Many landlords with substandard homes will likely wait until they are forced to take action, and by setting such a late deadline the government are enabling them to do so.
We should also caveat that these changes won’t be a silver bullet in transforming the quality of rented homes. These measures will only look to address the most serious hazards and disrepair for renters, and they will also be dependent on how well these new legal requirements are enforced in practice, relying on tenants having to take legal action if the landlord is breaking these new rules.
Enforcement: The Make-or-Break Issue
Even the strongest renters’ rights mean little without effective enforcement of the law, and this remains the biggest risk to the success of the Act. The current system of law enforcement is already failing renters – evident by widespread bad practices and criminal activity carried out by private landlords, and extremely low rates of prosecution. Most councils lack the resources, staffing and capacity to enforce existing renters’ protections, let alone the new, more comprehensive framework.
Concerns about enforcement are, for example, particularly acute when it comes to housing quality. Even where new standards are introduced in future, weak enforcement risks leaving renters trapped in unsafe and unhealthy homes with little practical recourse. There are also poor systems in place for dealing with the most harmful crimes carried out by landlords, such as illegal evictions.
While the Act introduces new enforcement duties and powers for local authorities, these alone will not be sufficient. The Renters’ Reform Coalition had made calls for the Government to introduce further protections for renters to challenge landlords - such as mediated rent pauses in situations where landlords haven’t addressed disrepair - but unfortunately the government did not accept these proposals. Without an overhaul of enforcement, rogue landlords will continue to operate without meaningful challenge, and much of the Act’s promises will fail to materialise.
What the Renters’ Rights Act Leaves Unaddressed
Alongside challenges in implementation, the Act leaves some of the most serious drivers of harm in the private rented sector unaddressed - most notably the crisis in rent affordability. While limiting rent increases to once per year offers some stability, it does nothing to address the fact that rents are already unaffordable for millions of households.
The existing system for challenging rent increases through the First-tier Tribunal is complex and intimidating, with few tenants even aware of its existence - it is rarely used. Even when renters do challenge increases, tribunal decisions are based on market rents that are already inflated. There is a real risk that economic evictions through unfair, unaffordable rent hikes, will be used as a de facto section 21 by landlords. The Government has suggested it may introduce a new rent adjudication body to make the process more accessible, but without stronger intervention to curb excessive rents, affordability will remain the defining injustice of private renting.
The Act does leave some open loopholes that risk undermining its protections. While excessive rent in advance is restricted, landlords are still free to demand guarantors - a practice that the Coalition campaigned against, as it disproportionately excludes renters without wealthy family members. There is also little in the Act to regulate the professional conduct of landlords and letting agents, which will allow poor practices and exploitation to persist. As above, there are also concerns about the strength of the Act in dealing with poor housing conditions too often faced by renters. The Act also doesn’t fully address the risk of tenure flight - where landlords may seek to escape their new responsibilities by shifting properties into short-term lets or temporary accommodation where they may not have to meet the same standards or legal obligations.
A Milestone, Not the Finish Line
The Renters’ Rights Act delivers many long-overdue reforms and signals a clear break from decades of policy that prioritised landlord flexibility over renters’ security.
But this is not the end of the story, and we must now focus on strong enforcement and implementation of the Act, and further action to tackle rent affordability and many remaining injustices faced by renters. If the Government is to be successful in transforming renters’ lives, further action will be needed. Nonetheless, we are hopeful that there is a remaining window in this Parliament for the government to continue making changes that will truly improve the lives of renters.
We will continue to work with our members, partners and supporters to ensure that the Renters’ Rights Act is the foundation of a genuinely fair private rented sector for generations to come.
Note: Information accurate at the date of publication.