Angela Rayner challenges Oliver Dowden on housing pressures at PMQs

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has used her stand-in appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions to attack the government’s record on housing.

She said homeowners were “sick with worry” over mortgages, while renters’ security had been “ripped away”.

Ms Rayner also pressed Deputy PM Oliver Dowden on when the government would ban no-fault evictions.

Mr Dowden told MPs the government was standing behind both renters and mortgage holders.

He added that legislation to give renters greater security had been introduced by the government.

The Renters (Reform) Bill was tabled in Parliament in May but has yet to be debated by MPs.

Under the legislation, landlords would be banned from evicting tenants with no justification as part of a long-promised overhaul of the private rental sector in England.

Ms Rayner and Mr Dowden were standing in for their respective party leaders – Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak – who were both attending a celebration of the NHS at Westminster Abbey.

The pair will meet again next week as the prime minister will be attending a Nato Summit in Lithuania.

Ms Rayner began her questions by asking if the Conservatives could still claim to be the “party of homeownership” given families were “sick with worry about the cost of the Tory mortgage bombshell”.

A typical five-year fixed mortgage deal currently has an interest rate of more than 6% – a sharp rise compared to this time last year – leaving homeowners who need to remortgage facing increases in their monthly payments.

The Bank of England has been raising interest rates in a bid to lower inflation.

Mr Dowden said he supported the bank’s efforts and pointed to an assessment by the International Monetary Fund, which said the UK was taking “decisive and responsible action” to bring down inflation.

In contrast, he said a Labour government would pursue “endless borrowing” driving up prices.

Ms Rayner said renters would also suffer as landlords pass on the cost of higher mortgages to their tenants.

She noted there had been a 116% increase in no-fault evictions in 2023 and asked when the government would “finally deliver” on its 2019 manifesto promise to ban them.

“The chancellor will take all necessary measures to stand behind both mortgage holders and of course take necessary measures for renters,” Mr Dowden replied.

Later in the question session, Labour MP Helen Hayes raised a housing case of one of her constituents, a first year university student, who took his own life in May.

He had signed a private sector tenancy agreement with his parents as guarantors, but the tenancy included a clause that said the responsibilities of the guarantor are unaffected by the death of a tenant.

Ms Hayes asked Mr Dowden to use the Renters Reform Bill to outlaw this practice and protect bereaved families.

The deputy prime minister said the case sounded “totally abhorrent” and would discuss measures to address the issue.