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Private Tenancies (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

My Lords, I thank the Minister for explaining this rather difficult order so clearly. I do not pretend to be an expert on this, but I support the order. There is no doubt that this part of housing in Northern Ireland needs a shake-up. I have some briefing from the National Landlords Association and will mention some points that it has raised, which the noble Lord will no doubt have seen in his briefing. These are that the provisions of the order should have been more clearly linked to other issues such as licensing of houses in multiple occupation, and that there should be closer working with landlords’ organisations in the payment of housing benefit. The NLA remains disappointed about some of the provisions. It states:"““The requirement to provide a rent book for all tenancies is an unduly onerous one in the world of electronic payments””." Perhaps we all agree with that. It continues:"““The powers of Articles 64 and 65 of the Order allowing a district council to require the details of tenancy agreements and landlords have not been fully explained and greater clarification that these would not be used to interfere in the landlord-tenant relationship or to introduce landlord or tenancy registration by stealth needs to be given””." I am sure that that is not the Government’s intention, but it would be nice to have reassurance on that point. The order will sweep away the distinction between controlled and uncontrolled tenancies which, in my opinion, has to be a good thing. Overall, in principle, we support the order.