Croydon council is reported to have become the first local authority to back the scrapping of Section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act, which enables landlords or their agents to terminate a tenancy agreement.

Alison Butler, Croydon council cabinet member with responsibility for housing, is reported to have told a council meeting: “The biggest cause of homelessness in Croydon is evictions in the private rental sector. With Croydon having lost around 70 per cent of its budget since 2010, we are struggling to deal with the scale of this problem, and it is unacceptable that private landlords are able to evict vulnerable tenants so easily, leaving the public sector to pick up the bill.”

The authority backed the End Unfair Evictions group, which includes individual protest organisations including Generation Rent, Shelter and anti-agency organisation Acorn. 

The campaign has already won high-profile local government supporters in the shape of Sian Berry, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, and Labour London Assembly housing spokesman Tom Copley. 

Nationally, Labour says S21 will be abolished if the party forms the next government, while consumer charity Citizens’ Advice claims 46 per cent chance of private tenants who complain about issues like damp or mould are issued with a Section 21 eviction notice within six months.