diff --git a/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py b/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py
index 6e8d98c824..4993fe4d29 100644
--- a/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py
+++ b/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py
@@ -522,13 +522,14 @@ def make_serializable(value):
     def _ensure_string(value):
         # NOTE(ralonsoh): once PY2 is deprecated, the str() conversion will be
         # no needed and six.binary_type --> bytes.
+        return value.decode() if isinstance(value, bytes) else value
         return (str(value.decode('utf-8'))
                 if isinstance(value, six.binary_type) else value)

     if isinstance(value, list):
         return [make_serializable(item) for item in value]
     elif isinstance(value, netlink.nla_slot):
-        return [value[0], make_serializable(value[1])]
+        return [value[0].decode() if isinstance(value[0], bytes) else value[0], make_serializable(value[1])]
     elif isinstance(value, netlink.nla_base) and six.PY3:
         return make_serializable(value.dump())
     elif isinstance(value, dict):