Work is taking place to make sure tenants are protected after the most significant reforms for renting in a generation have been enacted by the government.
The Renters Right Act 2025 was made into law last year and is currently in the process of being implemented.
The Act bans ‘no fault’ evictions and allows councils to fine rule-breaking landlords.
Thousands of people in Wokingham and the Reading suburbs live in private rental accommodation.
Now Wokingham Borough Council has conducted updates to its policies to ensure the law is implemented properly.
These changes affect approximately 10,000 people in private rental properties in the town, Woodley and Earley, and places like Shinfield and Arborfield, where the rental sector is growing.
The implementation of the Renters Rights Act was discussed at a meeting of the borough council’s executive.
Three councillors briefly had to leave the meeting as they are landlords themselves.
These were council leader Stephen Conway (Liberal Democrats, Twyford, Ruscombe & Hurst), David Hare (Liberal Democrats, Hawkedon), executive councillor for adult services, health and wellbeing, and Lou Timlin, executive councillor for public protection.
The properties these councillors own are all redacted on their register of interests on the council’s website.
Welcoming the measures, cllr Timlin (Liberal Democrats, Evendons) explained: “I had to declare an interest as I rent a property in Wokingham Borough.
“As a private landlord, I completely welcome the Renters Rights Act, its important we protect tenants. I don’t think responsible landlords have anything to fear, they are abiding by the rules anyway
“Tenants do deserve safe and secure homes, and these reforms will go some way to bringing that about and deliver good standards for tenants.
“It does give us enforcement powers: the obvious application is for no fault evictions, which are now not allowed.
“If a tenant is threatened with one, the council will have the power to act on that, and there are other things that the council can act on if a tenant is concerned about violations of their rental agreements; they can get recourse through the council.”
She said this in a call with the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
During the meeting, Prue Bray (Liberal Democrats, Winnersh), deputy leader of the council, said: “The Renters Rights Act 2025 is intended to strengthen tenant protections and improve housing standards and create a more consistent and transparent private rented sector.
“We welcome these, which will help protect our private tenants in the borough.
“About 15 per cent of our 69,000 households are estimated to be privately rented, which is quite a proportion of our residents.
“National housing and advice charities have welcomed these reforms, and particularly they’ve welcomed the abolition of no fault evictions, the stronger safeguards against discrimination and retaliatory evictions and the improved routes for tenants to challenge poor conditions.”
It was noted that giving the council the ability to fine rule-breaking landlords rather than seeking court prosecution enables more immediate and effective formal action.
Executive councillors unanimously agreed to update the council’s private housing enforcement and civil penalty policies at the meeting on July 30.
