• WE welcome the recent motion submitted by Camden’s Liberal Democrats, and supported strongly by Labour councillors, for an end to no-fault “Section 21” evictions that was passed at the last council meeting, (Stop the evictions! Camden resolves to campaign against Section 21 notices, April 11).

As your paper stated: “This clause, part of a 30-year-old housing act, allows landlords to evict tenants without giving a full reason”.

And this week the government has announced an intention to end Section 21 and instead will require landlords to offer good reason for any eviction. However the devil is in the detail and we await with interest to see what exactly they propose it is replaced by.

It will also take time to bring the required legislation forward and we suspect it will also be strongly contested by the landlord and letting agent lobbies every step of the way.

So everybody who wishes to see an end to this particular housing injustice will need to prepare themselves for the long struggle ahead.

We are also concerned that Section 21 could be replaced by rent increases as the way to evict tenants in the future, and we have long argued that security of tenure and affordability are two sides of the same renting coin.

Recently, along with our Renters’ Rights London (RRL) project, we met renters from the Latin American community who shared with us shocking examples of 70 per cent and 90 per cent of incomes being spent on rent, which further reinforces our belief that controlling rents is as important an issue as ending no-fault evictions.

They also highlighted the abuse by certain private landlords when homeless people are placed with them by local councils.

Poor conditions and an apparently shady history appear to be no bar to so-called Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) being used to house vulnerable people in conditions of overcrowding; and at great expense to the taxpayer.

Some of these RSLs (not to be confused with the long established housing associations) appear to be cartels of small investors known as “lockdown landlords” buying-up ordinary family homes and converting them into what are known as HMOs (house in multiple occupation).

The Guardian newspaper reported: “Housing inspectors found the micro-flats were often in very poor condition with inadequate fire safety provision and dangerously overloaded electrics and plumbing systems”.

Given the growth in “for profit” registered social landlords there is a clear need for councils to be much more selective in working with such landlords, and for government to examine the regulator’s criteria for granting this status.

ROBERT TAYLOR
Organiser, Camden Federation of Private Tenants
@CamdenFPT
www.cfpt.org.uk