A rental activist who runs the Generation Rent pressure group has told landlords that if they are “serious” about providing long-term homes for tenants they should back the scrapping of Section 21.

Dan Wilson Craw took to Twitter to respond to investor Kundan Bhaduri, and used the opportunity to offer advice to all landlords.

Bhaduri tweeted: “Dan – your over-activism will only drive away small time landlords who provide the backbone of the UK’s private housing sector. Make it easier for landlords to rent out, and there will be a thriving market for tenants as well.”

In return (and without saying who ‘they’ were), Wilson Craw responds: “They’ve already tried making it easier for landlords, in 1988 with section 21. The result: millions of tenants with no sense of a long term home and little negotiating power. Any landlord who is serious about providing long term homes should embrace s21 abolition.”

Earlier in their social media exchange, Wilson Craw said: “Section 8 will continue to give landlords the ability to take action against tenants who don’t meet their obligations. I’m not opposing that but any process needs to be fair. Those landlords are already well represented by their landlord bodies – GR represents renters.” 

At the end of the exchange Bhaduri went on to tell Wilson Craw: “I have never served a s21 on anyone with the intention of driving out a good tenant. However, when you wish to sell or reoccupy a property, it will become virtually impossible to prove that this is the case. It will also open up the Pandora’s box to corruption.”