Reeves under fresh pressure as new emails passed to Starmer in rent licence row: latest

The letting agency involved in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ letting arrangements has said it has apologized to her for the “oversight” that led to it not being granted a licence.

Gareth Martin, owner of Harvey Wheeler, said: “We alert all our clients to the need for a licence. To assist, our previous property manager offered to apply for a license on behalf of these clients, as shown in correspondence. The property manager resigned suddenly on the Friday before the tenancy began the following Monday.

“Unfortunately, as we do not normally apply for licenses on behalf of our customers, the lack of application was not resolved by us; the responsibility for the application lies with them. We apologized to the owners for this carelessness.

“All the relevant certificates were available when the tenancy commenced and had an application for a license been made we have no doubt it would have been granted.

“Our customers were under the impression that a license was being applied for. Even though it was not our responsibility to apply, we offered to help with this.

“We deeply regret the issue our customers are experiencing because they were under the impression that they were applying for a licence.”

Downing Street has guaranteed that Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget on 26 November.

Asked whether the autumn announcement would be made on the date expected by the current Chancellor, a No 10 spokesman confirmed this.

The spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has full confidence in the Chancellor.”

Southwark Council said only landlords who ignored selective licensing warning letters would be penalised, implying Ms Reeves should have avoided the fine by applying for a license immediately when she realized her mistake.

A council spokesman said: “Southwark Council requires private landlords to obtain a selective license to let their homes if they live in certain areas. This is to protect tenants and ensure landlords comply with housing requirements by providing safe, well-kept homes.

“Selective licenses are obtained by sending applications to the council, which then evaluates and approves them subject to conditions.

“When we become aware of an unlicensed property, we issue a warning letter informing the landlord that he or she has 21 days to apply for a licence; sanctions, such as fines, are reserved for those who fail to apply within this period or if the property is found to be in an unsafe condition.

“We cannot comment on individual cases.”

Rachel Reeves admitted she did not obtain the “selective” rental license required to rent her London home and apologized for the “inadvertent error” in a letter to the Prime Minister on Wednesday.

Ms Reeves told Sir Keir that “sadly” she and her family were unaware of the need for a license in Southwark, London, where they rented their home for £3,200 a month after moving into No 11.

The Chancellor is understood to have relied on the advice of a letting agent who said he would advise on whether a license was required.

Ms Reeves told Sir Keir: “This was an unintentional mistake. As soon as it was brought to my attention we took immediate action and applied for a licence.”

He added: “I sincerely apologize for this mistake and would be happy to answer your questions.”

In his response, Sir Keir said he was happy “the matter has been put to rest” after consulting ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus, who decided against launching an investigation.

“In light of your inadvertent failure to obtain the appropriate license for your rental property and your immediate action to rectify the situation, including your apology, I have been advised that there is no need for further investigation,” the Labor leader wrote.

He added that it was “regrettable that appropriate licensing was not sought sooner” but believed the Chancellor was “dealing with this matter with the urgency and seriousness it deserves”.

Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch has criticized Rachel Reeves over her letting license row.

In a post about X, he said “everything stinks” and called for an investigation.

He said: “The Prime Minister needs to stop trying to cover this up, launch a full investigation and if Reeves broke the law, take courage and sack him!”

Acorn, a union for private renting tenants, called for a full investigation into Rachel Reeves and said it was “ridiculous” that she would support an initiative she could not follow through on.

The union said in a post on

“Reeves should do the right thing and voluntarily pay the maximum Civil Penalty notice and return the rent he received from his tenants without a license.”

In a separate post on

The union commented: “It is a travesty that those in the highest positions in this country support these initiatives and then, accidentally or not, fail to follow through on them.”

Local authorities in England and Wales have the power to impose a licensing scheme covering all privately rented properties in a particular area.

It is designed to protect tenants against landlords renting out poorly maintained properties, but it is also being introduced due to concerns about ongoing problems of anti-social behavior in rental properties.

If a private landlord wants to rent a property in the designated area, he must apply for a licence.

Local authorities should contact people in the area to let them know if they have plans to introduce the scheme and display information on their websites.

However, even if they have been advised by a letting agent to manage their property, it is the landlord’s responsibility to apply for a license if they need it.

If a property does not have the correct licence, the landlord and letting agent may be fined or face prosecution.

This can be an unlimited fine or a financial penalty of up to £30,000 per offence.

Landlords may have a rent repayment order issued against them; This means they will have to pay back the rent collected while the property was unlicensed for up to a year.

Conservatives called for an investigation and said Reeves should be removed from office if he is found to have broken the law.

Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badencoch wrote the following in his post on X: “The Prime Minister needs to launch a comprehensive investigation.

“He once said ‘MPs cannot break the law’. If the Chancellor has broken the law then he will have to show that he has the courage to act.”

David Maddox, political editor of The Independent, reports:

It emerged this morning that the prime minister has moved swiftly to shut down yet another scandal enveloping one of his senior ministers.

But the controversy over Rachel Reeves’ inability to obtain the license needed to rent her former home is not ending quickly.

It didn’t help that the Chancellor was campaigning for a crackdown on similar landlords in his Leeds constituency, or that he might have to pay back thousands of pounds in rent.

But now new emails are emerging that may shed more light on the matter. It all seems to follow the same pattern as what happened with former deputy chancellor Angela Rayner’s stamp duty dodge and Louise Haigh’s arrest for falsely declaring a phone stolen.

Both eventually resigned, damaging the already beleaguered government. Ser Keir hopes he can save his chancellor.