Sajid Javid moots new housing court as he laments Tory 'failure' on homes
2 min read
Angry tenants could challenge their landlords in a special new court, Sajid Javid announced today, as he blasted his own party for its "failure" on housing.
The Communities Secretary said it was a "national outrage" that too many people were unable to afford to buy a home, and said the market was "broken".
He laid out a four-part plan to tackle the issue in a bid to stop Labour from "being taken seriously again".
Speaking at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Mr Javid said the Government would consult the judiciary about the prospect of a new Housing Court.
He said a new court could deliver "faster, more effective, justice" and reassure tenants there was somewhere with the "power to put it right".
He vowed to change the law to force landlords to sign up to an ombudsman scheme for dispute resolution and ensure letting agents operated under a regulatory scheme.
Elsewhere he pledged new incentives for landlords to offer long-term tenancies - to be unveiled at the autumn Budget.
It follows the announcement of an extra £10bn for the Help to Buy scheme, with the aim of getting another 135,000 people on the housing ladder.
Mr Javid said: “For too long, tenants have felt unable to resolve the issues they’ve faced, be it insecure tenure, unfair letting agents' fees or poor treatment by their landlord with little to no means of redress.
"We’re going to change that... Everyone has a right to feel safe and secure in their own homes and we will make sure they do.”
On the buying market, he said the difficulty of purchasing a home was "the biggest barrier to social progress in our country today" and a "clear injustice at the very heart of our society".
And he concluded: "It’s a mark of our failure on housing that the Labour party, a party led by Jeremy Corbyn, is being taken seriously again."
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