Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has confirmed landlords are to be prevented from asking tenants for more than one month’s rent in advance.

In an answer to a question in Parliament the Housing Minister said he wanted to see the practice outlawed and that he was looking into including an amendment to the Renters’ Rights Bill.

Pennycook stated: “The Government recognise that demands for extortionate rent in advance place a considerable financial strain on tenants and can exclude certain groups from renting altogether,”

“We are very clear that the practice of landlords demanding large amounts…must be prohibited.”

The Minister also said that although the new periodic tenancies that will replace the current fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies would in theory prevent rent being charged in advance, he believed that there was a case for putting this matter beyond doubt.

Landlords have commented that rent in advance’ is one of the ways the enables landlords to accept prospective tenants who fail referencing or are high risk, in particular foreign students who have no renting or financial track record in the UK.

Landlords have limited options when tenants are from high risk groups such as those who have built up rent arrears in the past or who have CCJs against them and rent in advance is one of the most commonly-used approaches.