John Denham

Welcome to the website of John Denham

John Denham has been representing Southampton Itchen in Parliament since 1992. 

He is currently Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. 

On this website you'll find news about what John's been up to in both Southampton and Westminster. 

You can get in touch with John on constituency issues by following the link below.

 

Protecting tenants' rights

John has called on the Government to retain the measures brought in by Labour to protect tenants in Southampton from dodgy and absentee landlords.  He has warned that plans from the Coalition Government risk damaging the standard of private homes and the quality of life in their communities.

In the past few weeks the Government has announced it will sweep away key regulations introduced by the Labour Government to protect private tenants. These include a national register of landlords set up to allow tenants to make basic checks on their prospective landlords, and enable Southampton City Council to enforce letting rules more easily.

There are nearly 30,000 private tenants in Southampton, all of whom could be affected if regulations on their landlords are relaxed.

The Government also plans to remove laws which allowed councils to prevent the spread of Homes in Multiple Occupation and stop the damaging effects of absentee landlords.  HMOs in high concentration can change the balance and nature of local communities when poorly managed.  Legislation brought in by Labour gave councils the power to prevent the creation of new HMOs under planning laws and reign in the problems associated with absentee landlords.

John said, "There are 9,650 private tenants in Southampton Itchen alone, all of whom stand to lose out from changes to landlord regulations.  At the same time whole areas of Southampton could be harmed if the city council isn’t able to restrain the spread of HMOs."