The Government has announced it is pushing ahead with the ban on letting agent fees, which is good news for renters in England. But not everything in the draft Tenant Fees Bill is as we had hoped, meaning many will still struggle with upfront costs. And there’s still more to be done to help homeless people rent.

The ban

When Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid unveiled the Bill, he recognised that “tenants have little control over letting fees because the agent is appointed by the landlord and as a result those fees can run into hundreds of pounds. This is not fair.”

And while concerns have been raised that fees will simply be passed on to tenants in the form of higher rents, evidence from Scotland suggests otherwise and an English select committee thought more evidence was needed.

Whatever the case, as it passes through parliament, the ban on letting agent fees will be cheered on by those struggling with the up-front costs of renting, as well as the millions of renters angered by inconsistent and sometimes sky high fees (though I suspect many think it’s already come into force).

Six weeks

As I have argued previously, letting agent fees are just one of many up-front costs that prevent homeless people from renting a home, with rent deposits, holding deposits and moving fees soon adding up.

Yet, while the draft Bill does introduce a cap on deposits at six weeks of the rent and limits holding deposits to a week’s rent, this simply doesn’t go far enough. Especially if you’re homeless, if you’re supported by benefits, if you don’t have any savings, if you’re having to move home unexpectedly… I could go on.

In our response to the government’s consultation earlier this year, we called for the holding deposit to be set at two days’ rent and the rent deposit cap to be set at 3 weeks' rent. But even this would be too costly for some. And that’s just one reason why we need Help to Rent.

Help to Rent

At Crisis, we’ve spent years working with local projects that support homeless people to find and, crucially, keep a home. To reduce upfront costs, some of these Help to Rent projects often offer bonds or guarantees to landlords in place of deposits. They then support both landlords and tenants to create homes that last.

But these projects aren’t everywhere and many are struggling for funding.

That’s why we’re campaigning for the Chancellor to fund Help to Rent projects and set up a national rent deposit guarantee scheme to enable all of them to reduce those up-front costs.

If the Government really is “prepared to act where markets are not working for all consumers” then they should support those with the least power in our broken housing market and help homeless people rent.

If you agree, then please email the Chancellor now: www.crisis.org.uk/homenoless