A decade of deregulation since the Housing Act 88 has clearly not worked. In 1989 the Conservative Government implemented the 1988 Housing Act in order to deregulate the private rented sector in this country. The philosophy behind this Act was that tenants had too many rights and that this was preventing the expansion of the private rented sector, and that, instead, landlords and tenants should compete in the open market as two equal parties . Security of tenure.
Security of tenure is the cornerstone of all other rights that tenants have.
Without security of tenure, it is very difficult for private tenants to enforce any other rights. For example, a tenant is far less likely to insist that a landlord mends a leaking roof or a dangerous gas fire if complaining about it is likely to result in them losing their home. Until the 1988 Housing Act most private tenants could get the Rent Officer to register a Fair Rent on their homes. This meant that landlords could only charge up to the Fair Rent, which was reviewed every two years. Tenants who were on benefit or on similarly low incomes were entitled to Housing Benefit up to the level of the Fair Rent on their home.