A major new package of measures to strengthen consumer protections for tenants living in private rented accommodation has been announced by Housing Minister Margaret Beckett.

The Government wants to improve the quality of the private rented sector, by increasing professionalism, driving out bad landlords, and strengthening protections for tenants affected by repossessions.

New proposals to be taken forward for consultation, as recommended in the Rugg Report include introducing a light-touch national register of every private landlord in England to increase protection for both vulnerable tenants and good landlords, meaning that landlords will need to include their registration number on all tenancy agreements and could be removed from the register for persistent poor performance; full regulation for private sector letting agents, as currently letting and managing agents do not need to have professional credentials; an improved complaints and redress procedure for tenants and lastly greater local authority support for good landlords.

In addition, the Government intends to change the law to ensure that tenants have a minimum two months’ notice if they have to leave their home because their landlord has been repossessed.

Lucy Morton, president of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), said: “ ARLA welcomed the Civil Procedure Rules, which ensure that tenants receive up to seven weeks notice of the date of a repossession hearing. However, this protection comes in at the wrong time of the repossession process, as the rules assume that a repossession order will be granted.

“If the repossession order is not granted and tenants agree a new contract with another landlord, they will have broken the law by reneging on a legally binding contract. Tenants need to be given adequate notice from the date a repossession order is granted - the Government has done nothing to address this in its Consumer White Paper.”