27^th Jul 2018

Generation Rent is joining other anti-private rental sector groups telling the government to do away with Section 21 evictions and to include more tenant friendly options in its proposed three year tenancies.

Dan Wilson director of Generation Rent wrote in The New Statesman that as the government is undertaking a three month consultation period on three year tenancies, it is now the best time for critics of landlords and agents to demand the government to give tenants far more rights.

Craw is critical of the three year tenancies proposal as he says the government is still letting down renters and hasn't gone far enough ......“the government has undermined this progress by letting amateur landlords keep their flexibility, allowing them to take back a property in the three years if they want to sell or move back in.”

Craw then makes even more incredible demands when writing that tenants should be given the freedom to stay in any property for as long as they like: “A three-year tenancy with limited grounds for eviction should at least give tenants greater confidence to complain. But that’s not enough. They should also have the knowledge that, so long as they meet their legal obligations, the home is theirs. If landlords can evict a blameless tenant, the rental market will keep failing to provide the certainty we associate with home.

“Ending Section 21 would still allow evictions if a tenant break the contract. If a landlord wants to sell, that’s fine, but they should sell to another landlord, with the tenants staying put – or to the tenants themselves. If they want somewhere to live, they can rent.

“The government’s consultation is a huge opportunity to make renting a genuine alternative to owner occupation. The English Housing Survey reports that 2.7m private renter households expect to buy eventually – yet less than 1m have more than £5000 in savings towards a deposit. That leaves a lot of people who will be denied the stability they crave for years to come. By abolishing Section 21 the government would give renters a stable home now”.

The Generation Rent pressure group is joining forces with the London Renters Union, the New Economics Foundation, and ACORN, a pressure group which has held regular protests outside letting agents’ offices brandishing placards, to end Section 21 notices once and for all.

News Archive »