A roof over your head is surely a basic right. However, housing of all types is in short supply.  Renting from a private landlord has grown since the turn of the century and about one in five Ipswich properties are now private rents.  Both renters and landlords have concerns.

On Friday, I was at the launch of Safe Suffolk Renters, a ground breaking new Suffolk-wide project aimed at improving the environment for both landlords and tenants in the private rented sector.  It has a budget of £2.2M and has a strapline of “Safer Homes, Happier Tenants”, which is a sentiment that we can all get behind.

All five councils in Suffolk are joining forces for this initiative which will lead to a better understanding of the pressures and problems in the sector and to an improvement in standards particularly in the worst private rented homes in Suffolk. The Pathfinder Programme, one of nine pilot projects taking place across England, is supported by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The project will look into direct links between housing quality and health, alongside an overall aim to improve tenants’ wellbeing. Part of the project, is to update and enhance the Housing Stock Condition Database to cover all private and social rented homes in the county. This will guide improvements to thermal efficiency and also target households who are eligible for grants.

I rented for twelve years and went through a few landlords in that time. The landlords were decent but other people have not been so lucky.  Ipswich Borough Council (IBC) do follow up on private tenant complaints and expect all private landlords to meet their legal obligations for any property that they rent out. We will enforce the law against the few who try and avoid the law and we will work to ensure private tenants live in safe and well-managed accommodation.  IBC do take landlords to court and in a recent case, a landlord was fined £17,000 for failing in their duties to protect residents’ health and safety.

Four years ago, Teresa May announced that Section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act would be scrapped.  This section allows landlords to evict tenants without giving a reason.  It’s often called a “no fault” eviction, as the tenant usually has done nothing wrong.  It has only taken four years to get this to parliament and will need a following wind to become law by the end of the year. Labour has promised to introduce a four-month notice period for landlords, a national register of landlords, and the right to make alterations to rented properties.  All to protect “Generation Rent” from unscrupulous landlords.

Ipswich Borough Council has about 7,800 council properties, which is about 13% of the properties in Ipswich.  Many properties have been sold through right to buy – 89 last year.  New houses have been built – I enjoyed a ribbon cutting session with the Mayor at our Grimwade Street flats recently.  These are well insulated and have solar panels.  I am particularly pleased that there are four fully wheelchair adapted flats.  Two of these have three bedrooms, which are rare anywhere in the town

These flats picked up one of the Ipswich Society annual awards, which recognise buildings that have made a notable contribution to the townscape.

I am pleased to report that building of 250 more council properties will be starting very soon.  One hundred at Ravenswood and 150 at the former BT office at Bibb Way on Handford Road.  The infrastructure – roads, sewers and drains – are being worked on at present with the builders due to get cracking in the summer.  I’m delighted that there will be 250 new homes next year.