The Renters’ Rights Bill receives Royal Assent

The Renters’ Rights Bill’s Royal Assent approval was announced today - 27th October 2025.

From the date the Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 11th September 2024, it has taken 413 days to reach this point.

A total of 226 pages, 76,770 words, 6,218 paragraphs and 18,650 lines of text that make up one of the most significant shifts in legislation since the introduction of the Housing Act 1988.

Looking back over the last 37 years, the premise behind much of the legislation that impacts the landlord was to ensure tenants were safe, the benchmark for property condition was elevated, and the process of obtaining possession was refined.

Many schools of thought felt that the relationship between landlord and tenant has always been biased in favour of the landlord, and a great deal of legislation was introduced in an attempt to redress this balance. The following all played a role in reforming the private rented sector in some shape or form :-

The Rent Act 1977, Protection from Eviction Act 1977, Landlord & Tenant 1985, Housing Act 1988 (1996), Landlord & Tenant Act 1987,  Housing Act 2004, Right to Rent provisions under the Immigration Act 2014 & 2016, Deregulation Act 2015, Consumer Protection Act 2015, Housing and Planning Act 2016, Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015/2018 the Tenant Fees Act 2019, Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, Fire Safety Act 2021.

But the Renters’ Rights Bill is a hybrid that "takes us back to the future" when security of tenure was at the forefront of the policy makers’ minds, preventing landlords from unlawfully evicting tenants but provides the tenant with the opportunity to serve 2 months’ notice.

There has been a lot of press coverage since the White Paper lauding a fairer rented sector; only time will tell whether the key initiatives of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will protect the very people for whom it was written.