Although Black and Minoritised people make up 16% of the total population in Bristol (Bristol City Council, 2021), Runnymede Trust (2015) reports that Bristol is the seventh worst place in England and Wales for Black and Minorities communities to live in. Black and Minoritised people are more likely to be homeless, unemployed or in precarious/low-paid employment, and more likely to live in damp, overcrowded, unsafe housing. According to the 2018 English Housing Survey, in every socio-economic group, White British households were less likely to rent their home privately than households from all ethnic minority groups combined (GOV.UK, 2021). Furthermore, in 2019, 8% of Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani people were unemployed – the highest rate of all ethnic groups (GOV.UK, 2022). With households from racialised communities being more likely to privately rent and experience unemployment, the effects of an increasingly expensive private rental sector filled with non-decent housing disproportionately affects racialised communities. Compounding these issues further is the current cost of living crisis which disproportionately affects racialised communities who are more likely to rent privately. In 2018, 48% of households which rent their homes privately in the South West are ‘Other than White’ (GOV.UK, 2022).

The Private Rental Sector

The median monthly private rental price in Bristol from 2021-22 was £1,125 per calender month (PCM), compared to the national average of £795 PCM (Office for National Statistics, 2022) .
For the financial year ending (FYE) 2020, a household with a median income in England could expect to spend 23% of their income on median private rent (Bristol City Council, 2022).
Households with income at the lower quartile could expect to spend a higher proportion (38%) of their income if they were to rent the same median rental property (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022).
In 2020-21, the private rented sector accounted for 19% of households in England (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022).
In 2020-21, those buying their home with a mortgage spent 18% of household income on mortgage payments, social renters spent 27%, private renters spent 31% (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022).
The private sector has a higher proportion of older dwellings built before 1919 (23%) (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2020).
Homes in the South West were more likely to be non-decent than many other regions in both 2010 and 2020.
In 2020-21, a quarter of private renters (25%) reported finding it either fairly difficult or very difficult to afford their rent (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022).
The average private renter in Bristol spends 42% of their income on rent compared to the national average of 31% in 2021 (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022).
23% of homes in the private rental sector would fail the Decent Homes Standard (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2021).
The median monthly private rental price in Bristol from 2021-22 was £1,125 PCM, compared to the national average of £795 PCM (Office for National Statistics, 2022).

Racial Disparities in Housing

In 2019/20, people from Black and Minoritised communities had less positive perceptions of their area, particularly Black respondents (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2020).
In 2019-2020, White people were twice as likely as Black people to say that most people in their neighbourhood could be trusted (61% compared to 30%) (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2020).
Those who lived in the most deprived areas were more likely to report that noisy neighbours were a problem compared to those who do not live in the same type of area (31% compared to 15%) (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2020).
In 2019, the greatest levels of deprivation in Bristol were in the wards of Hartcliffe & Withywood, Lawrence Hill and Filwood (Bristol City Council, 2019).
In 2018, households from the Chinese (45%), Arab (51%) and Other White (59%) ethnic groups had the highest percentages of renting their homes privately (GOV.UK, 2021).
In 2018, 48% of households which rented their homes privately were ‘Other than White’ in the South West (GOV.UK, 2021).

Renters Reform Bill

The Renters Reform Bill is currently in its 2nd reading in the House of Commons and will legislate the reforms set out in the A Fairer Private Rental Sector White Paper published in June 2022. The White Paper aims to reform the Private Rented Sector (private rental sector). Out of the 12 recommendations, the following measures made it into the Renters Reform Bill:

Abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions and moving to a structure where all assured tenancies are periodic.
Introduce more comprehensive possession grounds so landlords can still recover their property, and make it easier to repossess properties where tenants are at fault.
Provide stronger protections against backdoor eviction by ensuring tenants are able to appeal excessive rent increases. A tribunal will make a judgement on rent increases, if needed.
Introducing a new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman to resolve issues outside the court system.
Create a Privately Rented Property Portal to help landlords understand their legal obligations alongside providing better information to tenants about their housing rights. Local councils will be supported to target enforcement activity where it is needed the most.
Introducing a Property Portal where tenants, landlords and local councils have the information they need.
Give tenants the right to request a pet in the property.

Locally, Bristol City Council established a Living Rent Commission in July 2022, which aims to campaign for the power to introduce rent controls to make Bristol an affordable living city. With this aim in mind, Bristol City Council established a Living Rent Commission in July with the overarching goal to explore options for how Bristol can become a living rent city, without negatively impacting on the quality or availability of rental property. More specifically, the Commission’s aims are to:

Improve affordability of the private rented sector
Understand the impact of regulation on rent prices including on housing quality and maintenance
Identifying the most effective rent controls
Consider what other powers are required
Consider how to empower tenants’ rights

Policy Implications

The Renters Reform Bill aims to help protect renters from a rising cost of living, increase tenant and landlord access to appropriate dispute resolution services, and ensure higher quality properties. Addressing the impact of poor-quality housing, multi-occupancy, insecure housing is an essential part of the response to structural inequalities. Poor housing has contributed to the unacceptably low levels of progress in achieving racial justice. The government plans to apply the Decent Homes Standard to the private rental sector, strengthen local councils’ enforcement powers and make blanket bans on renting to tenants with children or in receipt of benefits in the future. The Renters Reform Bill is a useful starting point in tackling the private rental system, however, it will take capacity and resources for local councils to properly enforce the new standards in the face of a 37% decrease in central government grants between 2009/10 and 2019/20 (Institute for Government, 2020).

Delaying the introduction of the Decent Homes Standard to the private rental sector is an inadequate solution to the issue of non-decent accommodation. The government ran a consultation into applying the Decent Homes Standard to the private rental sector. According to the English Homes Survey (2021), the private sector has the highest proportion of older dwellings built before 1919, which are more likely to contain Category 1 hazards, where the most serious harm outcome is identified, for example death or serious fractures as a result of lack of heating. In 2020, 13% of private rented dwellings had a Category 1 hazard, with homes in the South West having a higher proportion of buildings built before 1919 (English Housing Survey, 2021). Furthermore, the Decent Homes Standard has not been updated since 2006 and does not cover overcrowding, which is a prevalent issue amongst minoritised communities. In 2020, the households with the highest rates of overcrowding were in the Bangladeshi (24%), Pakistani (18%), Black African (16%), Arab (15%) and Mixed White and Black African (14%) ethnic groups (GOV.UK, 2020). Considering the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 which requires residential rented accommodation to be maintained in a state of fitness for human habitation, there might be confusion as to which regulations to follow. Instead, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 could have been updated to tackle issues such as overcrowding. The government is currently running a consultation into implementing the Decent Homes Standard to the private rental sector. The English Housing Survey (2020) found that overcrowding is more common in ethnic minority households, with 6% of private-renting households reporting overcrowding. Subsequently, implementing the Decent Homes Standard will be a complex administrative task and financial burden for many local authorities. Addressing the impact of poor-quality housing, multi-occupancy, insecure housing is an essential part of the response to structural inequalities.

The Bill fails to include adequate protections for migrants, who are likely to face discrimination based on their ethnicity, name or accent. Individuals not born in the UK are subject to Right to Rent checks, where landlords have to check the immigration status of prospective tenants or face a criminal sentence or fine. As a result of Right to Rent checks, it can take individuals from minoritised communities almost twice as long to find a home to rent compared to their White British counterparts (The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, 2023). The Court of Appeal found that the Right to Rent scheme causes racial discrimination, however, left it up to MPs and the government to decide whether the racial discrimination was ‘greater than envisaged’. 37% of those born outside of the UK are privately renting, compared to 14% of the UK born population (The Migration Observatory, 2023). It is clear that the Right to Rent scheme must be reviewed in order to tackle discrimination within the private rental sector.

The Renters Reform Bill aims to deliver on the government’s commitment to “bring in a better deal for renters.” However,the bill does not provide adequate protection against the rising costs of privately rented housing. A ‘fair and affordable’ rent is defined as 30% of an individual’s monthly income, meanwhile, Bristol private renters will expect to spend up to 42% of their monthly income on rent (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022). Wards with a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic group population above 20% where the percentage of private rentals is above the city average of 24.9% are Lawrence Hill (29.1%), Easton (35.8%), Eastville (29.5%), Ashley (35.6%), and Central (56.4%). Subsequently, the effects of an increasing privately rented sector will have profound effects on minoritised communities, who are more likely to have precarious employment or live in areas where they are at risk of being priced out due to gentrification. Given that Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani people had the highest rate of unemployment amongst all ethnic groups at 8% (GOV.UK, 2022), households from minoritised communities are less likely to benefit from an artificial cap on rent increases. A BSWN Housing Report found that 47% of survey respondents from Black and minoritised communities classified home ownership as their primary choice of housing, however, the lack of direct response to affordable housing continues to be a barrier to home ownership rates and spending power (Retief and Lodi, 2020). 54% of renters from an ethnic minority background thought they could not afford to buy a house (English Housing Survey, 2021). A combination of increasing rental prices, mortgage rates and precarious employment serve as barriers to homeownership for minoritised communities.

Recommendations

The disproportionate impact of rising accommodation prices warrants a direct response from the government, ideally through:

A form of rent control to control increasing prices in the private rental sector.
The government must publish the results on its consultation on updating the Decent Homes Standard with measures to tackle overcrowding in private housing.
The government must increase funding to local authorities to enable effective enforcement.
Introduce a Rogue Landlord register to crack down on discrimination within the private rental sector.
Review the Right to Rent scheme in order to prohibit landlords from discriminating against migrants.
Build more social housing to ease the pressure on the private rental sector and ensure parity for all.
Increase Local Housing Allowance.

The shortage of affordable accommodation and social housing in Bristol allows landlords to increase the rent prices irrespective of the condition of the accommodation and tenants are left with no choice but to sign a tenancy agreement. Unaffordability leads to overcrowding, longer waiting lists for social housing, and increases the reach of criminal landlords. In 2020-21, a quarter of private renters (25%) reported finding it either fairly or very difficult to afford their rent (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022). Moreover, there is a considerable difference between Local Housing Allowance and average rent. Combined with the fact that it is legal for private landlords to refuse their property to a tenant in receipt of benefits, many are left unable to privately rent or apply for social housing. On a national level, 44% of landlords are unwilling to let tenants on housing support or universal credit according to the English Private Landlord Survey in 2021 (GOV.UK, 2022). Additionally, non-UK nationals are perceived as ‘high risk’ by landlords so are less likely to find suitable housing.

In conclusion, addressing racial disparities in housing requires a comprehensive approach that recognises the historical context, systemic inequalities, and the complex interplay of various factors. The Renters Reform Bill presents a missed opportunity to make strides in tackling these disparities by providing greater protection, empowerment, and representation for minoritised communities in Bristol. By implementing rent control, replenishing the social housing stock, tackling discrimination, and increasing Local Housing Allowance rates, policymakers can begin to dismantle the deeply entrenched racial inequities in the housing sector. It is imperative that Bristol seizes this moment to create a more inclusive and just housing landscape, where every individual, regardless of their race, can access safe, affordable, and dignified housing. Only through concerted efforts and sustained commitment can we truly achieve housing equity and a more harmonious society for all.

Written by Morayo Omogbenigun, Project Officer, and edited by Angelique Retief, Senior Policy Officer.

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