A senior Labour housing spokesman is urging the government to press on with plans to outlaw the use of Section 21 – despite the overwhelming opposition of the lettings industry.

In a letter to Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick MP, Labour’s London housing spokesman Tom Copley says over a quarter of adults in the capital now rent privately and that “tighter measures should be put in place to prevent tenants being forced to leave their homes with short notice and for no reason.”

Labour says government figures reveal that between March 2018 to April 2019, 3,380 households in the capital were “threatened with homelessness” as a result of S21.

Although the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched a public consultation on its proposals to abolish the use of s21 notices, Copley says the move should go ahead now that the consultation process has formally ended. 

“The threat of no fault evictions can deter tenants from reporting problems with repairs to their landlords for fear of retaliatory eviction. Abolishing ‘no fault’ evictions is the vital first step in protecting tenants in an often unfair and unforgiving private rented sector” insists Copley.

“There were thousands of no-fault evictions in London last year, but this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg. So we need to get on with scrapping section 21 without dither or delay.

“We know that the end of a private tenancy is now the leading cause of homelessness in the capital. It is clear that the sector needs quite radical reform as a matter of urgency.

“Of course, after abolishing section 21, the hovernment have a golden opportunity to go further and follow the lead of many other European countries by introducing open-ended tenancies and rent controls.”