Renters aren’t all ‘weed-smoking bad people in gangs’, says Tory housing minister

Not all of England's 11 million private renters are “weed-smoking people in gangs...smashing up the neighbourhood,” housing minister Rachel Maclean reassured attendees at a Conservative Party conference talk today.

Speaking to an audience of majority landlords, Maclean felt the need to remind them that renters can be Tory voters too, and that some are even “decent people”.

The talk, entitled ‘Going Private: reforming the private rented sector’, featured Maclean, David Simmonds MP, chair of the APPG on Housing and Planning, chief executive of the National Residential Landlord (NRLA) Ben Beadle, as well as representatives from GB News, the New Statesman, and conservative think tank Bright Blue.

No one speaking on the panel was solely a tenant. Maclean is technically a tenant as MPs must rent houses in London if their constituency is out of the city. This is paid for by the taxpayer. But she is also a homeowner.

The fringe event, which saw lines out of the door and was standing room only, was also sponsored by the NRLA, which lobbies for the concerns of landlords.

“There are plenty of young people who are in the PRS [private rented sector] who are not weed-smoking bad people in gangs and everything else, in crack dens… smashing up the neighbourhood,” said Maclean. “There are decent people hard working people in the PRS, and we need to do the right thing for them.”

She went on to say that her four children, who all vote Conservative, are private tenants.

As audience members flooded into the room to hear the minister speak on rental reforms, some complained the organisers had “underestimated how many landlords are at conference”.

Maclean, the sixth housing minister in under two years, said she hoped the delayed Renters Reform Bill would have its second reading soon, but that she also supported the rights of landlords to remove “bad tenants”.

“I just want to make it very clear that as a Conservative, I totally believe in the rights of people to own property, and to rent it out as long as they are playing fair and playing by the rules,” she said. “That is vital. When people are renting property out they need to be able to get it back if they need to. They need to be able to evict bad tenants.”

In 2021, openDemocracy revealed that a quarter of the Conservative party are landlords. The party does not reveal the demographic of its membership.

Tom Darling, campaign manager of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “I’m afraid this conference is showing the Conservative Party is having a discussion around rental reform that is disconnected from reality.”

“A panel event hosted by the landlord lobby with no tenant representative – it is these landlord voices in parliament that the government are listening to as the bill continues to be delayed,” added Darling.

“In the real world, about 75% of the public support reform,” he said. “They can see the need to end no-fault evictions and provide tenants with a better deal. The Tories continue to indulge reactionary landlords at their peril.”

The Conservative party has long promised to abolish Section 21 “no-fault” evictions, which allow landlords to evict tenants for no reason and are the leading cause of homelessness, but has failed to do so.

This Renters Reform Bill, which was given its first reading in May and is meant to ban no-fault evictions, has been repeatedly delayed, despite housing ministers promising to improve the private rented sector.

Private rents in the UK are rising at their highest rate on record, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Editor’s note: There's a chance that a new law that would protect private renters in England from unfair evictions could be shelved. Will you email your MP now to ask them to speak up for renters rights?. It could make a huge difference.