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Over 170 families facing Section 21 eviction notices daily as Renters Reform Bill stalls, says Shelter

Anna Sagar
Written By:
Posted:
July 19, 2023
Updated:
July 19, 2023

Every day 172 private renting families in England will be given a Section 21 no-fault eviction notice by their landlord, charity research has shown.

According to Shelter, who teamed up with The Co-operative Bank on the research, this is equivalent to one family every eight minutes.

The data also shows that over 188,000 private renters with children have received a no-fault eviction in the last five years, and one in five families private renting, equivalent to 277,000 families, have had to move three or more times in the last five years.

Under the Section 21 notice families have two months to move out of their home and landlords do not have to give a reason for evicting them.

Section 21 notices are due to be scrapped as part of the Renters Reform Bill, which was introduced to Parliament in May but has not had its second reading.

The government is going on its summer recess from the 20 July to 4 September.

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Shelter and The Co-operative Bank are in Parliament Square today, with plans to cover the square in moving boxes. Each box represents one of the families due to be evicted.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said that the government was “failing” renters by “stalling” on the Renters Reform Bill.

She continued: “For each day that MPs are off on their six-week summer break, another 172 families will be hit with a no-fault eviction notice, giving them just two months to pack up and leave their homes.

“With private rents rising rapidly and no genuinely affordable social homes available, those with an eviction pending face an increasingly hostile situation. Far from a relaxing holiday, these families will be desperately scrambling to find somewhere to live.

Neate said that many parents will forced to overpay and accept dire conditions or face the prospect of becoming homeless.

“It is unacceptable that the Renters Reform Bill has made no progress in Parliament, when the very eviction notices the government promised to ban years ago are continuing to land on people’s doorsteps in their droves. The government must bring back the Bill as soon as Parliament returns. England’s 11m private renters are depending on it,” she added.

Nick Slape, chief executive officer at The Co-operative Bank, said: “Fighting poverty and inequality across the UK is extremely important to our customers, and that’s why we’re campaigning on this issue alongside Shelter.

“We were encouraged to see this bill brought to parliament, but we need to see tangible action from the government now. Families across the country are depending on it.”