Government backtrack on pledge to ban ‘no fault’ evictions could fuel homelessness

Liz Truss has pledged to honour a manifesto commitment to scrap ‘no fault’ evictions of private renters in England.

This follows reports earlier in the week that the Government could move to shelve this 2019 manifesto pledge.

Section 21 eviction notices allow landlords to evict a tenant with just two months’ notice, without having to give a reason.

If Section 21 notices aren’t scrapped, thousands more people would be pushed into homelessness this winter, according to the Chief Executive of Crisis, Matt Downie.

“To scale back on preventing the leading cause of homelessness now would be disastrous,” he said.

Government statistics released at the end of last month reveal that 19,790 households in England faced homelessness in the last financial year, after receiving a no-fault eviction notice. This is a 121% increase on the previous year.

With the winter homelessness epidemic looming in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, Noel Beamish, CEO of Dover Outreach Centre, a charity that aims to help the homeless out of homelessness, believes it’s hard to say how much worse the situation is set to become.

“But given that we are just entering the point of higher energy costs, it really can only get worse as folks cannot afford the basics, which include rent,” Noel said.

Noel believes part of the reason for the 121% increase may be due to The Coronavirus Act 2020, which protected private tenants by delaying when landlords can evict tenants.

Noel said: “I believe the solution to homelessness is likely to be more homes built, available and managed by local authorities, housing associations and charities.”

However the CEO does have “some sympathy” for landlords with regards to the ‘no fault’ evictions.

“From experience if a tenant is looking after the property and paying the rent, landlords are generally happy. The problems come when they are not,” he said.