MP welcomes Government decision to further lower cap on rental deposits

Local MP Tim Farron has welcomed the Government's decision to further reduce the maximum the number of weeks' rent a landlord can charge tenants as a deposit, to the equivalent of five weeks' rent.

Back in September, the Government presented a bill to Parliament which looked at lowering the cap on deposits to six weeks' worth of rent.

But after this was criticised for not going far enough by both MPs and homeless charities, the Ministry of Housing have announced this week that the cap will now be lowered to five weeks.

During the debate in the House of Commons on the bill back in September, Tim argued that it was essential for the Government to lower the cap to combat the rise of homelessness.

Here in the South Lakes, the local district council say the number of people who have applied for homelessness assistance has trebled over the past 12 months.

Tim said: "It's good that the Government have seen sense and lowered the cap for renters.

"High deposits clearly have a massive impact on rising homelessness and so it would have been such a missed opportunity if the Government had gone ahead with the six-week cap.

"It is national disgrace that so many people are sleeping on the streets in 21st century Britain.

"Although I have argued that the cap should be reduced to a month, this is still a positive step in the right direction."