18th
May 2017
The Independent has just run a story on the government's 'Right to Rent' scheme will be taken to court as being discriminatory, as it forces landlords to carry out immigration checks on tenants.
As covered in past stories the 'Right to Rent' scheme was piloted in various areas from December 2014 and was subsequently rolled out across the whole of the UK in February 2016.
Under the scheme any person when applying for a tenancy who failed to show proper forms of ID would be unable to rent accommodation. The scheme was introduced by Theresa May whilst Home Secretary.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, (JCWI) is writing to the Home Office demanding that the scheme be stopped with immediate effect to properly evaluate its full effects on the sector, as there are many concerns that it is 'encouraging' discrimination.
The JCWI will, if necessary, take the government to court if it refuses to bring a halt to the 'Right to Rent' scheme. The Council recently carried out research in February and found that the scheme was pressurising landlords into taking a 'discriminatory stance' to protect themselves.
Over the course of their research the JWCI sent out a number of 'Mystery Shoppers' to apply for tenancies with different landlords.
One 'shopper' was a British BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) applying for tenancies but without having a passport. and found that they were more than 26% likely to be turned down than a British BME taking a passport. The exercise also found that a white British person without a passport only had an 11% chance of being turned away from a tenancy than a white British person with a passport.
Out of the landlords that took part in the research, 42% stated that because of the scheme they would be less inclined to rent their property to someone without a British passport; 51% said that 'Right to Rent' had made them less likely to rent to foreign nationals.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is appealing for crowdfunding of its legal fees, if it has to take government to court.
Saira Grant, Chief Executive of JCWI, said: “In the face of clear evidence of discrimination under Right to Rent, the Government must show it is not acting illegally before it presses ahead with a rollout to the rest of the UK.
“This is a scheme that not only discriminates against BME Britons, foreign nationals and British nationals without passports – it imposes costs on landlords, agents and tenants too.
“In the absence of any clear plan to monitor its effects the Government must carry out a thorough review – until then, any extension to other parts of the UK would be premature, dangerous, and potentially illegal.”
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