Gove renting reforms counterproductive, says Frost

MICHAEL GOVE’S renting reforms are “dangerous and counterproductive”, Lord Frost has said in a broadside at the Government’s crackdown on landlords.

The Tory peer used his speech at the National Conservatism conference to attack the Housing Secretary’s package of reforms, which will remove the right to evict tenants without having to prove any fault.

Lord Frost, who last weekend launched his attempt to become an MP as he was placed on the Conservative candidate list, said it reflected a trend of growing state interference in “every activity and every choice”.

“Let’s not forget what that means,” he added. “The endless hectoring, the constant suggestion that the Government has the right to dictate how you behave… The dangerous and counterproductive intrusion into private property – as Michael Gove’s renters’ bill will do this morning [and] the seeming determination to remove risk from every aspect of daily life.”

Later in his speech, the peer joined senior Tory backbenchers including Simon Clarke and Brandon Lewis in their calls for ministers to do more to build new homes: “As Michael Gove said yesterday, there aren’t enough houses. Well, there’s only one answer to that.”

Lord Frost said those looking to get on the housing ladder and get on in life “won’t be Conservatives if we only seem concerned about looking after those who have already done well”.

He added: “We won’t win elections as the party of the self-satisfied and the entitled. We must be the party of opportunity and the party of the future.”

Urging Britain to follow European countries including Germany and Hungary by “demolishing some of the monstrous buildings we built in the last 50 years and rebuilding what we have lost”, Lord Frost suggested this should be “a project for this new Carolean age”.

It came as Mr Gove faced criticism from further afield as the British Property Federation warned his reforms could prompt an increase in short-term lets. Ian Fletcher, the group’s director of policy, said: “By not prescribing a minimum tenancy length the Government further risks fuelling a booming shortlets market, where holiday lets replace much-needed permanent homes, at a time when the rental market is already suffering a significant lack of supply.”

Sir John Redwood, who was the head of Margaret Thatcher’s No10 policy unit, added: “When Parliament legislates to stop bad landlords it also needs to make sure it does not lose lots of good ones in the process.”

Mr Gove said the Government hopes to get the planned legislation through Parliament before the end of this year.