 In January 2016, the Labour Party unsuccessfully proposed an amendment in Parliament that would have required private landlords to make their homes "fit for human habitation".According to Parliament's register of interests, Cairns was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment who personally derived an income from renting out property.The Conservative Government responded to the amendment by stating that they believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it.