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‘Suspend Right to Rent’ say landlords as Home Office reconvenes panel

'Grave concerns' over scheme will be presented to Home Office officials on October 11th by RLA which says migrants and UK citiziens without passports face indirect discrimination.

Nigel Lewis

right to rent

The government is to re-examine how its controversial ‘Right to Rent’ legislation is impacting the private rental market after coming under pressure from the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) to suspend the scheme.

Home Office officials have told the RLA that it is to reconvene its private rented sector panel on 11th October at a meeting room in the House of Commons to get additional feedback on how Right to Rent is playing out across the UK.

It is now a year since the panel was last brought together and to date has not included representatives of migrants.

The meeting will give the RLA an opportunity to present its ‘grave concerns’ about Right to Rent, and the association has told The Negotiator that it is receiving ongoing negative feedback from its members about the scheme.

Right to rent passports

Last year research showed that 42% of landlords were less likely to let a property to anyone without a British passport even though only 76% of UK citizens hold one, official data shows.

Letting agents and landlords are now required to check the immigration status of tenants and must inform the Home Office if they have ‘reasonable cause to believe’ that the property they are letting is occupied by someone who does not have the right to rent in the UK.

Landlords and agents are increasingly worried about what happens after Brexit when tenants from the EU will have to prove their right to rent in the UK, even though a ‘reference number’ system mooted by the Home Office is likely to be unworkable, the RLA claims.

David Smith image right to rent“While we welcome the news the Home Office is keen to re-engage with the sector, we want to see them take bold action,” says RLA policy director David Smith (pictured, left).

“Would-be tenants who are legally entitled to live in the UK, but struggle to prove it, are being denied homes and we believe the time has come to suspend this unfair scheme.”

Read more about Right to Rent.

 

September 19, 2018

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