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Lives of Cambridgeshire families ‘thrown upside down’ by no-fault evictions
‘Labour’s Renters Charter would provide new help and support for renters’
54 families in South Cambridgeshire and 42 families in East Cambridgeshire have faced proceedings to eject them from their home in the years since the Tories promised to ban ‘no fault’ evictions in April 2019, Labour has claimed. South Cambs Labour’s housing spokesperson Luke Viner said: “Families in South and East Cambs need protection from having their lives thrown upside down by no-fault evictions.
“It is a mark of the staggering chaos at the heart of Government under the Conservatives that four years after they promised to fix the problem, nothing has changed.
“The cost-of-living crisis is suffocating families in South and East Cambs, and the utter failure of Conservatives to provide competent government is making things harder and harder and harder.”
Mr Viner added: “People in South and East Cambs need a change – they need a government with a plan to get Britain building again so we can build the homes we need to get out of the housing crisis.
“They need a government with a plan for a Renters’ Charter to provide certainty for renters. And they need a government with a plan to end 13 years of Tory failure, chaos, and confusion. That change can only come with an election and a Labour Government.”
Mr Viner explained that ‘no-fault’ evictions, also known as Section 21 notices, allow landlords to order tenants to leave with a minimum of two months’ warning – without having to prove that the tenant is at fault in any way.
“The figure is based on the number of no-fault eviction letters that have been followed up with a possession claim in the courts,” he said.
“The true scale of the problem could be worse, as not all Section 21 notices will necessarily reach this stage.”
He said there are 10,181 households privately renting in South Cambs and 6,184 households privately renting in East Cambs “each and every one still vulnerable to no fault evictions more than 4 years after Government promises to stamp them out”.
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Mr Viner said Labour wanted “real action” to support renters including a Renters’ Charter, providing new certainty for renters, ending ‘no-fault’ evictions, and introducing four-month notice periods for landlords.
He said the statistics of mortgage and landlord possessions are self-explanatory.
“The Conservatives promised to ban no fault evictions in April 2019 – yet four and a half years on the practice is still legal,” he said.
“Labour’s Renters Charter would provide new help and support for renters.”
