14th
Apr 2021
There have been a number of local protests organised by Momentum campaigning against the re-introduction of evictions; one of which was held outside the offices of a major corporate landlord (Uncle) in Westminster last week.
The protest centred on demanding that the corporate landlord which has assets of £5 billion plus, must sign a pledge of not evicting any tenants during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The corporate landlord has 300 flats in the Southwark and Lambeth authorities, received a letter urging it to the sign to this pledge and forgive (forget) the rental arrears increase due to the pandemic, which it has so far failed to reply to.
The local private tenant campaign group Southwark-Lambeth Eviction Resistance (SLER) states that corporate landlords have massively increased their portfolios into property empires through years of charging excessively high rents, “so it’s not fair that ordinary renters should pay the cost of a Covid rent debt crisis”.
The demonstration in Westminster on April 10th was part of a national day of protests, organised and supported by Momentum, against major landlords who own a significant proportion of UK rental properties.
Uncle is part of the trend of multinational organisations using the ‘build to rent’ scheme and one of its properties in the Elephant & Castle is 45 storeys high.
Half of UK landlords (48%) own just the one property, whilst the other half of tenancies are handled by just 17% of landlords who own five or more properties.
Uncle praises its management structure and resources such as its interior designers and on-site managers also claims that is far more approachable and flexible in its approach to tenants with less upfront fees than its counterparts.
The rent protesters stated that the corporate’s CEO has said Uncle “want to take the ‘lord’ attitude out of the word ‘landlord’.”
But the campaign group says that the landlord has failed to show any effort in helping tenants who have accrued arrears during the pandemic.
The group said the research carried out by an industry body found that around 800,000 tenant households have fallen into rental arrears during Covid-19.
The Labour party’s recent research claims that 190,000 of private tenants could become redundant.
In its recent extension to the evictions ban the government added a clause allowing landlords to go ahead with the eviction process if a six-month rental arrears is reached by tenants.
An SLER spokesperson said: “Landlords like Uncle have built lucrative property empires from years of charging inflated rents.
“We’re facing a Covid rent debt crisis that’s been exacerbated by high rent prices, and it’s not fair that ordinary tenants could be made to pay the price.
“Uncle say they’re different to other landlords – we urge them to show it’s true, and promise that they won’t make anyone homeless during the pandemic.”
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