Arguments over abolishing Section 21 hot up as Shelter sticks the knife in
NRLA says a new system for evictions must be an effective replacement for Section 21 as Shelter blamed notices for rise in homelessness.
Landlords have replied to homeless campaigners calling for a swift end to Section 21 no-fault evictions.
Shelter has repeated its demand for Section 21 to be abolished immediately, and said a growing number of tenants are being threatened with eviction.
The charity points to government figures showing nearly 6,000 households were threatened with homelessness in England as a result of a Section 21 eviction between April and June this year. This figure has risen by 76% in a year.
A quarter of households were found to be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless because of the loss of a private tenancy (17,530 households), and has increased by 61% in the last year, Shelter says.
The number of private renting households in rent arrears who have become homeless or threatened with homelessness (2,920 households) is up 38% in the last year.
Polly Neate, CEO of Shelter (pictured), says: “This winter is going to be brutal as the cost of living crisis goes from bad to worse, and the threat of rising rents and evictions loom large.
“The government promised to ban no fault evictions, it must get on with the job and make the Renters’ Reform Bill law.”
landlords reply
Chris Norris (pictured), policy director at NRLA (National Residential Landlords Association), says: “We want to see tenancies sustained wherever possible. For vulnerable tenants that means preventing rent arrears in the first place by unfreezing housing benefit rates.
“It means also ensuring landlords have the confidence to stay in the market. With over a quarter of a million homes in the sector having been lost over the past four years, an ever-smaller sector makes it more difficult for tenants to secure, and sustain, the housing they need.”
When the government abolishes Section 21, it must replace it with an effective system that has the confidence of landlords and tenants, he adds.
Polly Neate who sits at the top of a 48M a year not for profit enterprise which in direction is a million miles from the foundations it was set upon in the mid 1960’s, needs to realise that lack of housing in the lettings vertical for the vulnerable, is not rogue landlords, it is not secton 21, it is caused by poverty, lack of governmental housing policy dating generations and an economy that has inflation running in real terms at 14%.
Disco Gove, says 2023 will be the year that the rental sector gets sorted, well my guess is, that as both houses of parliament are stuffed with landlords, it will be interesting to see what some of the peers who have huge rental portfolios think about a change in law, if it conflicts with their interests.