Mr. Bob Jordan:

I thank the Chairman and the members of the committee. I am delighted to be here today. Our chairperson, Dr. Aideen Hayden, sends her apologies. She wishes the committee well in its deliberations. She is a strong advocate for reform in the private rented sector, which is the subject I am going to talk about today. One in five households now lives in the private rented sector. After owner-occupation, it is the second largest form of housing tenure and the single biggest cause of homelessness at the moment.

I should declare my own interest in the private rented sector. I am a tenant. I have lived in the same apartment in the same building with the same landlord for over 20 years. Throughout that time, my property has been upgraded and my rent has increased and decreased as we have got older together. There are many people like me whose good experiences of the private rented sector are based on their relationships with their landlords. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years in my day job as the chief executive of Threshold I have met people who have had different experiences.

We, in Threshold, see ourselves as standing between tenants with severe housing problems and homelessness. Last year, we helped more than 32,000 people with housing problems. Approximately 20% of them were at immediate risk of homelessness. Clearly, every single one of those people has a family crisis behind closed doors and needs support from an organisation like Threshold. In the past couple of years, in collaboration with the Department of Social Protection and the local authorities we have been able to give people money under the rent supplement scheme to keep them in their homes. Clearly, that is working and needs to continue.

An important point to make about the private rented sector is that even though it has expanded in size, it has not grown up. Many of our recommendations relate to giving people more protection in their homes, improving the standard of accommodation and dealing with problems like illegal evictions. All members of the committee know people who live in the private rented sector. They want to know how long they can stay in that sector and how much they will have to pay from year to year. They want to know to whom they can they turn when things go wrong with their properties. These are simple things, but when it comes to policy they have been pretty fraught. It is time to deal with them.

It is important for every member of the committee to get a copy of a minority report produced by Threshold as part of the work of the Commission on the Private Rented Residential Sector in 1999 or 2000. It is probable that there are fewer copies of this report than there are original copies of the Magna Carta. Much of the thinking around the private rented sector was done when this report was being formulated over 16 years ago. Some of the ideas we are proposing today, such as giving people rent certainty or indefinite tenancies in the private rented sector, were included in the report.

In Threshold's minority report, we made it clear that we opposed the commission's recommendation that the rents applicable to tenancies in the private rented sector should be open-market rents. While we accepted the position that initial rents should be freely negotiated between tenants and landlords, we were of the view that the later evolution of those rents should be based on an annual index. We included that recommendation in our report but it was rejected. The same page set out Threshold's view that tenants should have a continual conditional right to occupy their rented homes without it being subject to any upper time limit. As the committee is aware, an upper time limit of four years was introduced.

Threshold has been totally consistent in what it has been seeking for the private rented sector. Contrary to what has sometimes been said in the media, our responses are not knee-jerk - they are based on what is best for the private rented sector. That is why it is very important for the members of this committee to get a copy of our report. The positions set out in the report are still our positions. The private rented sector has changed.

The private rented sector has changed, with an increasing number of families living in private rented accommodation. Security of tenure of four years does not cut it for families as their children will attend school for 12 or 13 years. There is no legal impediment to introducing indefinite security of tenure in the private rented sector and it should be introduced.

As members will be aware, there was a great deal of toing and froing on rent certainty last year. Rent certainty is the norm in modern developed European economies. With the exception of the United Kingdom, rents are linked to inflation in one way or another throughout Europe. This approach is good for landlords and tenants because rents will start to fall once the rented market returns to normal supply. In 2008-09, rents fell by 30% and the only reason landlords did not exit the market in droves was that most were in negative equity and there was a ratchet effect. The next time rents decline sharply, landlords will leave the market. Rent certainty would ensure the rate of decline would be tapered over a period, thereby protecting supply in the rented sector and landlords. That is an important point which is rarely made. Rent certainty provides a bandwidth, as it were, within which rents can increase or decrease. That they can currently rise or fall at any rate is not good.

No one has evidence to show whether the recently introduced rent freeze worked. The Private Residential Tenancies Board does not have such evidence because it registers new tenancies and does not measure changes in rent between tenancies. The daft.iewebsite does not measure changes because it advertises new properties. Based on our work, however, Threshold believes the rent freeze has had some effect. Last year, approximately 1,000 people who were facing unaffordable rent increases contacted Threshold and we were able to help them to remain in their homes. These individuals and families will not contact us again this year.

To summarise, a second commission on the private rented sector is required. I ask the committee to support our recommendation that a new commission be established. The danger with introducing piecemeal legislation on the private rented sector is that we will deliver the wrong outcomes because of the large number of issues arising in the sector. When I meet the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Coveney, tomorrow I will put to him our recommendation on establishing a new commission.

Our submission raises many other issues, including in respect of rent supplement, bedsit accommodation and standards in the private rented sector. I would like to address these issues, perhaps in response to questions from members.