Right To Rent: pressure group crowdfunding to pay for Judicial Review

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is now crowdfunding to pay for the Judicial Review of the government’s controversial Right To Rent legislation.

The pressure group successfully requested the right to mount a review earlier this week at the High Court, with support and research from the Residential Landlords Association.

Satbir Singh, JWCI chief executive, says he is delighted at the decision. “Like many other aspects of the ‘hostile environment’ the Right to Rent creates real risks of discrimination” says Singh.

In a report earlier this year the JCWI said some 51 per cent of landlords surveyed said that the scheme would make them less likely to consider letting to foreign nationals, while 42 per cent stated that they were less likely to rent to someone without a British passport as a result of the scheme. 

This rose to 48 per cent when explicitly asked to consider the impact of the criminal sanction, and an enquiry from a British Black Minority Ethnic tenant without a passport was ignored or turned down by 58 per cent of landlords in a mystery shopping exercise.

The JCWI says any funds it gets in will be used to pay for time with barristers from the Matrix Chambers law firm. 

“We have already done the bulk of the work in gathering evidence of discrimination, but we need to do more over the coming weeks. We had funding to do that work, but that has come to an end. We need your help to keep going and to deliver the best outcome we can” explains the organisation.

Its crowdfunding page is here.