Voters have backed NSW Labor’s promise to ban landlords from evicting tenants without good reason, as the government focuses on rental reforms as a key part of a housing puzzle that needs an urgent solution.
An exclusive survey shows that 56 per cent of voters support the government’s ban on no-grounds evictions, while only 23 per cent are opposed to enforcing tighter rules around how a tenant can be forced out of a rental property.
Labor wants its election commitment to end no grounds evictions introduced into law by next year, and has embarked on a final round of consultations with key stakeholders, including tenants’ groups and investors.
Under the proposed laws, landlords will be banned from kicking out tenants on fixed and periodic leases without “commonsense and reasonable reasons”.
New data on evictions, compiled from the government’s End of Tenancy Survey, shows 320,000 tenancies end each year in NSW and 73,000 of those, or 23 per cent, are “landlord led”. Of the latter figure, about 32,000 are no-ground evictions, or 10 per cent of all tenancies that end.
Minns maintains that boosting supply remains a key part of the puzzle, but the rental market is an “equity issue for young people”.
The government has four planks in its housing policy: sweeping changes to planning laws including its transport oriented developments (TODs), investment in public housing, the sale and development of surplus government land, and rental changes
The opposition last week failed in its attempt to kill off the Minns government’s signature density reforms and overturn new planning controls at 37 train stations, where six-storey apartment blocks would be built as part of its TOD program.
The opposition’s spokesperson for planning, Scott Farlow, introduced a bill to allow for the abolition of TOD locations. This would stop any or all of the 37 different TOD locations.
The vote was lost 12 to 25 in the upper house on Wednesday in a blow for the Coalition, which was hoping to campaign against the housing reforms at next month’s local government elections.
Despite support for the government’s housing reforms, NSW Labor’s primary vote has slipped two points to 30 per cent while the Coalition’s has risen three points to 38 per cent.
Minns remains the preferred premier with 38 per cent of voters, while Opposition Leader Mark Speakman is on 13 per cent.
Resolve director Jim Reed said Labor’s primary vote also had dropped in other ALP states, but Minns’ rating remained positive.
“Labor’s vote support has been dropping in all three of the eastern coast states, and despite drops for the Minns government they’re actually the most healthy of the three,” Reed said.
“There is a lot of anxiety about living costs, housing, the economy and crime right now, and incumbents are catching the flak from voters for that. With Labor in power everywhere on the mainland, there’s a real brand effect for them.”
Source: This article was originally published by WA Today and you can read the full article here.
