Private Rental Sector Policy U-Turn
Housing Secretary makes major private rental sector policy U-turn during BBC interview over the weekend.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove has committed to outlawing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions before the General Election, which must take place before the end of January next year.
The announcement by Gove, which was in answer to a question by BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg during her weekend political show, is a major U-turn by the Government.
Although banning Sections 21 evictions is part of the long-delayed private rental sector policy Renters (Reform) Bill, Ministers had previously said it would only become law once the possession courts system, which was last week described as ‘still in crisis’ by expert Paul Shamplina, improved.
Gove, answering a question on when no fault evictions would be outlawed, he told Kuenssberg that “we will have outlawed it and we will have put the money into the courts in order to ensure that they can enforce that”.
But he said it was important to deal with the “abuse” of no-fault evictions.
But he said it was important to deal with the “abuse” of no-fault evictions.”
“It is the case that there are a small minority of unscrupulous landlords who use the threat of eviction either to jack up rents or to silence people who are complaining about the quality of their homes,” he said.
Gove’s change of mind follows stinging criticism from Shelter and a coalition of other housing charities over delays to the Renters (Reform) Bill’s progress through parliament, claiming Gove’s department had ‘deprioritised it’.
Although the courts system remains extremely slow for landlords and agents seeking to evict problem tenants with many claiming it takes over a year to evict at some courts, official figures suggest wait times are decreasing.
The latest ONS quarterly figures reveal that the median average time from claim to landlord repossession decreased to 21.7 weeks, down from 42.3 weeks in the same period during 2021.
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