{"id":2376,"date":"2017-01-30T15:34:41","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T15:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/176.32.230.6\/whq.org.uk\/?p=2376"},"modified":"2017-01-30T16:04:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T16:04:38","slug":"will-wales-finally-ban-letting-agent-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whq.org.uk\/2017\/01\/30\/will-wales-finally-ban-letting-agent-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"When will Wales finally ban letting agent fees?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><strong>First Scotland, now England. The campaign to stop letting agents charging fees to tenants\u00a0in Wales continues, says Liz Silversmith of Let Down in Wales.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2377 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/176.32.230.6\/whq.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Liz-Profile-Pic-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whq.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Liz-Profile-Pic-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whq.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Liz-Profile-Pic-115x65.jpg 115w, https:\/\/whq.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Liz-Profile-Pic.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>There\u00a0have\u00a0been some curious developments in the Assembly recently on whether Wales should ban letting agency fees. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Throughout the passage of the Renting Homes Bill last year, Let Down consistently campaigned for letting agency fees to be banned. This was alongside other measures we felt would <\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"https:\/\/letdownincardiff.wordpress.com\/our-manifesto\/\">ensure renters\u2019 rights<\/a><\/span><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">, such as an Ombudsman or Tribunal to mediate between renters and landlords and a new Welsh Tenants Quality Standard, in order to bring private housing quality in line with social housing\u2019s Welsh Housing Quality Standard. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">However, the Welsh Government repeatedly voted down attempts to do so. Plaid Cymru\u2019s former housing spokesperson, Jocelyn Davies, tried amendments to ban fees but the then Housing Minister &#8211; Lesley Griffiths &#8211; stated she was worried this would merely increase rents. This is in spite of the fact that <\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/money\/2016\/nov\/23\/rents-unfair-letting-fees-tenants-charges\">Shelter did not find any evidence<\/a><\/span><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\"> for this when they were banned in Scotland and a House of Commons select committee decided that any evidence was inconclusive. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Just because letting agents tell you they will push the rents up, doesn\u2019t mean they will. Actually, rents are usually determined by the average wages in the area. If a flat is unaffordable, it\u2019s unaffordable; rents go up because of supply and demand, not because the agency is annoyed that they can\u2019t charge fees anymore. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">In addition to this excuse, the Welsh Government insisted that they did not have the powers to ban letting agency fees, despite housing being devolved. This was proven wrong by one of their own backbenchers, Jenny Rathbone AM, when she secured a <\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jennyrathbone.com\/jenny_rathbone_demands_action_on_letting_agency_fees\">short debate<\/a><\/span><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\"> in September 2016 on banning letting agent fees. Her advice from the Assembly\u2019s Head of Legal Services confirmed that the Welsh Government actually did have the powers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">This was proven again when the UK Chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced in his Autumn Statement that he would ban letting agent fees. But only in England; clearly he thinks this power is devolved as well. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">So where are we now? Last week, five AMs attempted to put forward <\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.assembly.wales\/en\/bus-home\/bus-legislation\/bill_ballots\/Pages\/Pre-ballot-proposals.aspx\">Proposed Member Bills <\/a><\/span><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">(when backbenchers have the opportunity to put forward their own legislation, rather than just follow the Welsh Government\u2019s legislative agenda). There were three Labour backbenchers and two UKIP AMs who tabled ones to ban fees. <\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.assembly.wales\/en\/bus-home\/pages\/rop.aspx?meetingid=4011&amp;assembly=5&amp;c=Record%20of%20Proceedings&amp;startDt=07\/12\/2016&amp;endDt=07\/12\/2016\">A debate back in December,<\/a><\/span><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\"> led by UKIP, confirmed that there was support across the whole Assembly for this legislation; Plaid Cymru, Welsh Conservatives and Labour backbenchers all joined them in calling for the fees to be banned. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Given this strong support, a Proposed Member Bill would almost be guaranteed to go through. But, unfortunately, none of these five AMs were picked. The ballot is merely a lottery and out of 29 proposed Bills, the odds weren\u2019t great. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">After this, it feels a little back to square one, with the Welsh Government still delaying any work to actually ban them and with backbenchers still frustrated at the lack of action. However, we do have confirmation that the whole Assembly is in support of this and that Welsh Ministers absolutely do have the powers to do something. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">It would be an embarrassment for Welsh Labour if the UK Government got there before them and, given Philip Hammond\u2019s pledge, they probably will. Then we will be in a situation where both Scotland\u2019s and England\u2019s renters don\u2019t have to pay fees, whereas in Wales, we\u2019re stuck with them, until the Welsh Government decides it\u2019s a high enough priority. <\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Let Down will continue with our campaigning. Since there won\u2019t be another Proposed Member Bill ballot until much later in the year, we\u2019ll be pressing the Housing Minister, Carl Sargeant, for action. Check out our <\/span><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"https:\/\/letdownincardiff.wordpress.com\/\">website<\/a><\/span><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\"> to keep up to date. <\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><i><span lang=\"EN-US\">Liz Silversmith has been running the Let Down in Wales campaign since 2013, when she was disappointed to find the Housing Act doing very little to change the poor conditions for private renters. Follow the campaign on Twitter at <\/span><\/i><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/letdownwales\"><i>@letdownwales<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/span><i><span lang=\"EN-US\"> and Liz at <\/span><\/i><span class=\"Hyperlink0\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lizsilversmith\"><i>@lizsilversmith. <\/i><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First Scotland, now England. The campaign to stop letting agents charging fees to tenants\u00a0in Wales continues, says Liz Silversmith of Let Down in Wales. There\u00a0have\u00a0been some curious developments in the Assembly recently on whether Wales should ban letting agency fees&#8230;. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/whq.org.uk\/2017\/01\/30\/will-wales-finally-ban-letting-agent-fees\/\" class=\"post_link\"> Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When will Wales finally ban letting agent fees? - WHQ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/whq.org.uk\/2017\/01\/30\/will-wales-finally-ban-letting-agent-fees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When will Wales finally ban letting agent fees? - WHQ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First Scotland, now England. The campaign to stop letting agents charging fees to tenants\u00a0in Wales continues, says Liz Silversmith of Let Down in Wales. There\u00a0have\u00a0been some curious developments in the Assembly recently on whether Wales should ban letting agency fees.... 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