Kate Osborne MP throws her support behind the Government’s Renters Reform Bill

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The Jarrow and Gateshead East MP, Kate Osborne, has highlighted how the Renters Reform Bill will help those within the rental market in her latest fortnightly Shields Gazette column.

Welcome to 2025 - Parliament is back with a bang and as always it’s incredibly busy - just this week we have pushed the Renters Reform Bill through the next stages of Parliament and that will hugely improve the lives of people.

As a renter myself, (although I got lucky in the landlord stakes with my current Hebburn landlord, that hasn't always been the case!) I know the many pitfalls there are for those who can't own their own properties.

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Housing is always the subject constituents contact me about the most, from extortionate rents, unfair contracts, no-fault evictions and living in disrepair - renters are in desperate need for the measures this Bill will bring in.

This Bill will help undo years of Tory damage to the housing sector, they ran down our housing stock, whilst their mates got rich off the back of working people.

Kate Osborne has highlighted how the Renters Reform Bill will transform the lives of many across the UK.Kate Osborne has highlighted how the Renters Reform Bill will transform the lives of many across the UK.
Kate Osborne has highlighted how the Renters Reform Bill will transform the lives of many across the UK. | Other 3rd Party

Every week we have significant housing casework wins ensuring repairs are carried out, changing bandings for council waiting lists, ensuring people are rehoused, Housing ASB issues, rent increases successfully challenged, getting deposits returned and helping when people are being threatened with eviction - and that's just a summary of the very many housing issues my office deal with - but people should not have to get their MP involved to get a decent housing service from landlords - and this bill will give people much-needed rights.

Renters Reform Bill will ban Section 21 no-fault evictions, limit rent increases, stop landlords from discriminating against benefits claimants, protect tenants from dangerous damp and mould, stop grieving families from having to pay utility bills on rented properties of families, let people have pets (an issue so many people contact me about!) and much more - of course the Conservative MPs voted against it.

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I am keen to see the bill put into action quickly and for metro mayors to be given powers to introduce rent caps.

I know that people are aware of my decades-long campaigning against violence against women and girls, that’s why this week I was so disgusted by those people who used child abuse to play politics and spread disinformation and lies.

I voted for the Children’s Wellbeing and School Bill - as it was the biggest reform in child protection for a generation - the suggested amendment from the Tories would not have led to a national inquiry into child sex abuse and would have killed the bill.

Whatever the spin, lies and attempts to inflame tensions, there was only one vote on the Bill, and it wasn’t on child sexual abuse.

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The Bill will break down barriers to opportunity by putting more qualified teachers at the front of classrooms, roll out free breakfast clubs in primary schools to boost attendance and support parents, limit the number of branded school uniform items which would save parents over £50 per child, keep families together and children safe by strengthening multi-agency safeguarding and child protection arrangements, create a compulsory Children Not in School register, and so much more.

When the opposition had the opportunity to take action on child sex abuse instead Boris Johnson said the money spent on historical investigations was “spaffed up the wall”.

The Tories failed to implement the Jay recommendations to protect vulnerable children and their attempts to pretend otherwise now are frankly absurd.

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It is completely outrageous and insulting to all victims and campaigners for such a serious issue to be treated with such contemptuous game-playing from Conservatives, Reform politicians and others.

We need people to be aware of the issues without being misled, we must be clear that the figures from the police database show where ethnicity is recorded, that in the first three quarters of 2024 - 85% of group-based child abusers were white, while 3.9% were of Pakistani origin.

The figure increases for Pakistani offenders to 13.7% if you remove institutional groups, such as sports groups, schools and church-based group offenders, and group child abuse committed in a family setting.

What we need is the findings from the previous reports to now be implemented, what we need is for women and girls to be protected and what we need is for victims to be believed and supported - we need to acknowledge the problems people face when reporting abuse, when women and children are not believed, not supported by friends, families, medical staff, police - the failings in the court systems and the stigma and so many other issues.

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We need to tackle the abuse and call it out wherever it happens - but we also need to be very clear on the statistics - the number of victims is appalling and we need abuse taken seriously and all perpetrators held to account.

If we have another inquiry this should not be at the expense of implementing the actions from all the previous inquiries that must be the priority.

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