The right to a good-quality, affordable home should not simply be a dream for people, but a reality. Yet the lives of far too many people are being blighted by substandard housing.

Fourteen years of Conservative failures on housing - exacerbated by the churn of five Prime Ministers and no less than 16 housing ministers - has left a whole generation resigned to a lifetime of housing insecurity.

Turning around such a deep-seated issue will not be straightforward, but recognising that this is a long-term challenge is no excuse for delay or inaction. That is why we are getting to work immediately.

This week, the ambitious Renters’ Rights Bill will return to Parliament. The Bill paves the way for the biggest overhaul of the rental market in years, with its mission to provide millions of people across our country with the housing security they deserve.

Why is this Bill so crucial? Firstly, it takes the massively overdue step of ending Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions. Families should not be unfairly pushed out of their homes and forced onto the streets, relatives’ sofas, or shunted around temporary accommodation. Here in Ipswich, we have more than 50 open homelessness applications because of a Section 21 notice. That is simply unacceptable.

During the COVID pandemic, the previous Conservative government increased the notice period for Section 21 evictions to six months. They could have used this opportunity to introduce a permanent ban, as their 2019 manifesto pledged, but they made a deliberate political choice not to do so. This Labour government will right this wrong.

The new legislation will also put an end to unjust rental bidding wars, so exploitative landlords can no longer make a profit from pitting desperate tenants against one another. Similarly, it will also ban in-tenancy rent hikes, which, in effect, are often little less eviction notices in disguise.

To ensure that no-one is forced to live in poor quality and inadequate homes, the Bill also paves the way for the introduction of a Decent Homes Standard, ensuring that safe, secure housing is an absolute minimum for all rented properties.

This legislation will be swiftly followed by the introduction of Awaab’s Law this autumn. These measures are named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year old baby who died due to mould in his family’s home in 2020, and will ensure that hazards are investigated and remedied within a set timescale.

However, it is important to note that these reforms are designed to empower tenants, not to punish landlords. The only people who should fear these measures are those landlords who profit off the back of exploiting their tenants, gaming a broken system, and refusing to meet their most basic responsibility of providing a decent home fit for someone to live in.

We are also setting to work to definitively end our outdated, exploitative leasehold system, and finally address the building safety crisis here in Ipswich and beyond.

In a departure from the past, our new government recognises the importance of reforming and building housing of all tenures. A thriving housing market must have a healthy balance, including between rental and privately-owned properties, so everyone, regardless of their means, has the basic right to safe housing.

This week’s legislation is only the latest step to redressing the imbalance and indecision which has wracked the housing market for too long.

Our plan is not to simply build for the sake of it, nor will we merely tinker around the edges of a fundamentally broken system.

As well as delivering a generation of new and secure housing, our plan is imperative to drive economic growth, spearhead the skills and jobs revolution, and provide opportunity to every single family here in Suffolk.

The Renters’ Rights Bill is a major part of the tapestry of reforms that will help deliver on this promise.

Jack Abbott is Labour MP for Ipswich