The chief executive of Shelter – the campaigning charity which has been sharply critical of letting agents in the past – has been honoured with a CBE in the traditional New Year’s list.

Polly Neate, who earlier this year wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson attacking a lettings agency in Leicester for “an abuse of power” following its tweets about Section 21, has been an advocate of scrapping S21 in recent months.

She told Johnson in the letter that: “Your predecessor [Theresa May] took a vital step towards improving the lives of England’s 11m private renters when she unveiled plans to abolish ‘no-fault’ evictions. You can make these plans a reality by seeing through the crucial legislation a Conservative government has already committed to.”

Over the weekend Neate herself took to Twitter to say: “Thank you so much for all the congratulations today. Sorry if I’ve missed replying to anyone. It’s an honour to work with our people at Shelter and to be recognised alongside some of the civil society leaders I most admire. The fight to defend the right to a safe home continues.”

Neate was formerly chief executive of Women’s Aid – the national charity working to end violence against women and children – and previously worked at Action for Children and before that was editor of Community Care magazine.

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