For over a decade our academics have been actively involved in driving legal reform to address the housing crisis and its disproportionate impact on marginalised groups.
Housing provision in the UK is in a state of crisis. It is estimated* that over 8 million people in England are living in unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable homes. Over 400,000 people are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Over the last decade, research by the Law School’s Dr Edward Kirton-Darling, in collaboration with Professor David Cowan (now at Cardiff University) has helped drive the legal and cultural reform needed to tackle the issues that disproportionately impact those who are marginal to housing provision, including families, tenants, tower block residents, vulnerable adults and armed forces veterans.
In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, Professor Cowan and Dr Kirton-Darling led the research for an influential ‘Closing the Gaps’ report commissioned by the housing and homelessness charity, Shelter.
The report investigated the failings in the law which had been so starkly revealed by the disaster. It made clear that the law relating to health and safety in homes was piecemeal, complex and patchily enforced - largely because it was based on an outmoded Victorian heritage that lacked coherence depending on an occupier’s housing tenure.
In Grenfell Tower itself, the occupiers had a range of housing tenures that made legal adjudication problematic. The report recommended both legal reform and cultural change, so that those responsible for the health and safety of occupiers become proactive in fulfilling those responsibilities.
The impact was far reaching, directly influencing Shelter's lobbying strategy for housing conditions in England and, ultimately, the successful passage the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act in Parliament.
The Homes Bill, now enacted, will affect every social and private rented tenancy of less than seven years in England, covering around 8.8 million properties. It also makes provisions that ensure landlords must provide and maintain residential rented accommodation in a state of fitness for human habitation.
Helping to drive cultural change, Dr Kirton-Darling’s research went beyond legal reform and enabled two NGOs to develop tools that empowered tenants to challenge unsafe housing conditions and hold landlords to account.
This work took the form of the Tower Blocks UK Fire Safety Checklist, developed in partnership with Tower Blocks UK - and the FixMyBlock online toolkit, developed in partnership with mySociety.
Prior to the Grenfell fire, and directly influencing the change that has happened after it, Cowan and Kirton-Darling’s earlier research provided the legal underpinning and evidential basis for the regulation of nearly all rented accommodation in Wales.
The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 created a unified rental housing market, clearer right and responsibilities for tenants and landlords and a radical overhaul of repairing standards.
Additional research by Dr Kirton-Darling has also highlighted the growing problem of homelessness amongst armed forces veterans – prompting a new Homelessness Code of Guidance published by the government in 2018 that included, for the first time, a specific chapter on veterans.
The research also led to London local authorities putting greater emphasis on priority housing for veterans and the London Mayor to appoint the city’s first Armed Forces Champion.
The Renters (Reform) Bill 2023
The Renters (Reform) Bill, introduced into Parliament on 17 May 2023, aims to deliver a fairer, more secure, and higher quality private rented sector for both tenants and landlords.
Dr Kirton-Darling is working with other housing law experts to identify ways in which the provisions in the Renters Reform Bill might improve the law on illegal eviction.
This includes discussions with policy makers, politicians, local authority officers responsible for enforcement and campaign organisations.
He is also working with Bristol City Council and Avon and Somerset Police to develop training materials for the police and public information materials on the law in relation to illegal eviction.
What might be the impacts of rental reform?
For more information on University of Bristol research, please visit: www.bristol.ac.uk/research.
