Tenants need rights. Apart from food and water, shelter is the most basic human need and relevant to almost everyone all the time – unlike, say, healthcare, which most people do not use on a daily basis. A rebalancing of the law towards renters and away from landlords, which the government has done in its Renters’ Rights Act, was sorely needed. Failures and abuses of power have been ignored for too long.

With no-fault evictions outlawed from next May, and tougher oversight from a new ombudsman to follow, life should be about to get better for England’s 4.6m households in the private rental sector. But will it? Troubling analysis by the Guardian shows that two-thirds of councils in England have not prosecuted a single landlord in the past three years, while nearly half didn’t issue any fines either. Over the same period, fewer than 2% of complaints led to enforcement of any kind. Just 16 landlords were banned from letting homes – a shockingly low number, given the volume of complaints and what has been revealed about the sector by the worst scandals.

The hope is that this seemingly lackadaisical approach is going to be replaced with something far more proactive. The introduction of a mandatory decent homes standard for private rentals – to match that in the socially rented sector – is being consulted on, and remains a dismayingly long way off. But from next year, councils will be legally required to report on their enforcement activity. A new landlords’ register should be a useful tool, giving local authorities and other interested parties clearer oversight of what is going on in their areas. Most importantly, section 21 evictions – which require no justification other than that the landlord wants their property vacated – are being banned.

Yet the data from the past three years gives cause for concern. Currently, the number of landlords being held to account is tiny. If this is to change, councils will need resources. New rules and tools are of limited use if there is no one to use them. Recent history is rich with examples of harms caused not by inadequate legislation but poor enforcement. The appalling record of the water industry in relation to pollution is a prime example. Some of the failures that led to the catastrophic fire in Grenfell Tower – which was managed by a social landlord – are another.

Ministers have pledged “burdens funding” to enable local authorities to carry out their new duties. But environmental health departments, which were cut back massively under austerity, cannot be built back up overnight. Councils are under huge pressure, with up to 70 facing the risk of bankruptcy due in part to overspent special educational needs budgets. Ministers need to explain how the enforcement of renters’ rights will be funded. Provision must be made for staff training and recruitment.

Legal proceedings are time-consuming and expensive. Most complaints from tenants do not need to end up before judges. The new housing ombudsman is meant to provide a mediation service. But if the new law is to raise standards and improve lives, as ministers claim, there must be mechanisms that compel landlords to follow rules. This is the least that the millions of renters priced out of home ownership, and lacking the option of a socially rented home, deserve.