218 Crawley families have faced threat of no-fault evictions since the Government promised a ban, says Labour Party

The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice this month reveal that 218 local families have now faced no-fault ejections from their home since April 2019, when the Conservative Government promised to ban the practice. Across the country the total is now approaching 90,000 households.

‘No-fault evictions’, also known as Section 21 notices, allow landlords to order tenants to leave with a minimum of two months’ warning – without having to prove that the tenant is at fault. The figure is based on the number of no-fault eviction letters that have been followed up with a possession claim in the courts. The true scale of the problem could be far worse, as not all Section 21 notices will necessarily reach this stage.

In Crawley, there are currently 8,312 households renting privately, all of which still vulnerable to a no-fault eviction five years after the Government promised to stamp them out. Earlier this month Crawley Borough Council declared a ‘Housing Emergency’ due to the record pressure on providing temporary accommodation for families with nowhere else to go, a cost to local taxpayers that no-fault evictions only serve to increase.

Remarking upon the figures, Peter Lamb—Labour candidate for Crawley, said: “Labour has been calling for an end to no-fault evictions for years – but five years after the Conservatives promised to act there are still over 8,000 households in Crawley at risk of groundless eviction at any time.

“Crawley is currently experiencing a Housing Emergency, we cannot afford to see more people lose their home for no reason. That’s why I’m delighted that a future Labour Government is committed to implementing a Renters’ Charter, providing new certainty for renters by ending no-fault evictions and introducing four-month notice periods for landlords.”