The British Property Federation has called on the government to abolish the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, which enshrines tenants’ rights to lease renewals.
In response to the DOE’s consultation paper on proposed amendments to the Act, the BPF gave a qualified welcome to the DOE’s suggestion that both landlord and tenant could contract out of security of tenure without court approval. At present, tenants wishing to renew leases must apply to the courts.
But BPF director-general William McKee insisted that the whole Act is outdated and a better course would be to scrap it altogether.
McKee said: “The 1954 Act was drawn up against a background of property shortage when commercial tenants were judged to be in need of statutory protection. This no longer applies.”
However, the British Retail Consortium is against abolition. Assistant director Mark Bradshaw said: “Tenants will lose the protection that the Act provides and the market will become a free-for-all.”
Jim Cotter of Nabarro Nathanson’s property litigation department said the Act gave protection to tenants who had invested in their premises.
McKee said there was a “new spirit of co-operation”, illustrated by the publication of the code of practice for commercial leases last year. Bradshaw countered that the code, designed to smooth landlord and tenant relations, was of limited use and has had no significant effect.
