Campaign group Generation Rent has called for the government to freeze rents and do more to protect renters from eviction following the release of possession statistics.
In Q2 2022 there were 4,686 eviction orders by courts in England, Ministry of Justice statistics show.
Alicia Kennedy, director of Generation Rent, responded : “The number of court orders for evictions for rent arrears has never been higher. This is the aftermath of the pandemic when many renters didn’t get enough support to cover the rent and are now losing their homes.
“But it’s going to get worse as energy bills climb further and more people face a devastating choice between paying rent, heating their home, and putting food on the table.
“Alongside a further package of financial support, the government must freeze rents and protect renters from eviction if they’re struggling to stay on top of rent.”
Generation Rent has launched a campaign to freeze rents and stop Section 21 evictions due to the cost-of-living crisis.
The campaign group promoted a petition put forward by Emma Johnson, described as one of its supporters, on the 38 Degrees website.
The petition calls to ‘stop renter evictions during the cost-of-living crisis’.
It says: “The government needs to act now to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and protect renters who are being forced to choose between staying on top of rent and putting food on the table. To choose between living and merely existing.
“Only if the government freezes rents and stops these types of evictions will millions of renters finally begin to get some sense of security during this cost-of-living crisis.”
Generation Rent isn’t the only group calling for government intervention to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on evictions.
Last week Shelter called for housing benefit to be ‘unfrozen’ to help more renters stay in their properties.
How can this Campaign group say this when its them and Shelter that are the main cause of evictions and rent increases, had they not told lies and lobbied the government to persecute landlords with high taxes and law changes that give the tenants the upper hand, and councils that tell tenants remain in the property until the bailiffs arrive so they can be rewarded by being put on the top of the council waiting list, no wonder so many landlords selling up all caused by these landlord bashings group who contribute NOTHING towards the private rental sector.
Inreases in evictions was the inevitable result of the protection of non paying tenants, anti social tenants, bad tenants etc for a long time. Use of these twisted statistics are used for political reasons and not a true reflection of normal conditions. Rents are set by the market which in part is largely controlled by supply and demand. The actions and demands of Generation Rent, Shelter and the other presure groups have finally pushed against landlords to the point where landlords are leaving the market and selling. This will reduce supply, demand will realatively increase puting even more pressure on rents. Control rents and you will loose even more rented property availablity. Landlords have the same rising costs to including costs faced by tenants such are power/utility costs when providing HMO’s or serviced accommodation. They face increases on financing as most rental and investment property is financed. So freeze rents increase interest on finance and the model collapses - result sale of rental property. Sale of rental property means less available to rent, more people (particularly those most in financially challenged) unable to find accommodation. Those with bad histories will end up on the streets sooner rather than later. The monovision of these so called housing help groups are doing the opposite and generate more problems than the resolve for the people they allege to seek to help.