Industry News


Tenants face rising tide of no-fault evictions as Reform Bill delayed again


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ore than 26,000 Section 21 notices have been issued in the past five years since a ban on no-fault evictions was first


announced by the Government. Private tenants have been hit by a series of bad


news with official figures showing a dramatic rise in no-fault evictions, a net loss of more than 16,000 social homes for rent and another delay to long- promised laws to give renters greater security. Te number of households evicted through


Ssection 21 procedures rose 39% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to analysis of Ministry of Justice figures by the housing charity Shelter. A further 30,230 landlords started no-fault eviction court proceedings in 2023, a 28% rise in one year. About one in five households in England


now rent from a private landlord – double the number at the start of the millennium. Campaigners say the rising number of evictions showed a worsening trend “blighting the lives of renters across our country”. Section 21 allows landlords to remove tenants


for no reason with just two months’ notice and it is a major driver of homelessness. A bill outlawing the practice is going through Parliament, but its progress has been painfully slow and there are doubts that it will even complete all its stages before a general election is held. Tere have been concerns that MPs who


are also landlords, have put pressure on the Government to water down reforms protecting tenants. Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, accused the Government of “bowing to vested interests while renters are marched out of their homes in their thousands”.


LOSS OF SOCIAL RENT HOMES Neate called for the Renters (Reform) Bill to be delivered to make renting “safer, fairer and more secure” but said the Government must “oppose attempts to water down the bill from inside its own ranks”. “When they head for the ballot box, England’s 11 million renters will remember who stood with them,” she added. Meanwhile, there has been a net loss of social


housing, either through sales or demolition, of more than 16,000 social homes last year compared with the previous year, according to analysis of official figures by Crisis, a homelessness charity. A total of 25,749 social homes were either sold


or demolished last year in England, with only 9,500 being built. In the past decade, there has been a total loss of more than 180,000 social homes, which are let at roughly 40% of market rates. Official


Ombudsman consults on its business plan after another record year


Te Housing Ombudsman is consulting on its Business Plan for 2024/25, at a time when it is experiencing record levels of complaints about services provided by social landlords. Te Business Plan covers the final year of the


Ombudsman’s 2022/25 Corporate Plan, which aims to deliver an independent, visible and proactive service for social housing residents and landlords. While additional resources mean the


Ombudsman is expected to double the number of investigations completed in 2023/24 compared to the previous year – equating to a determination being issued around every 20 minutes – the consultation follows another record year in complaints, including: • A 91% increase in cases in the first 9 months of 2023/24 (compared to the same period last year);


• A maladministration rate of 72% (it was 59% in 2022/23) by Q3;


• Compensation awards of £3.7m (compared to £1.1m for the whole of 2022/23) by Q3; and


• More than 14,000 remedies following investigations (compared to 6,500 in the prior year) by Q3.


The number of households evicted through section 21 procedures rose 39% in 2023 compared with 2022


figures also show that 1.28 million households in England are currently stuck on council waiting lists for a social home. “It’s disgraceful to see the number of social


homes continue to be decimated,” said Matt Downie, Crisis’s chief executive. “Tis is robbing over a million households stuck on council waiting lists of the opportunity of a safe home.” A spokesperson for the Department for


Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “Our landmark Renters (Reform) Bill will deliver a fairer private rented sector for both tenants and landlords. It will abolish Section 21 evictions – giving people more security in their homes and empowering them to challenge poor practices. Te total stock of social housing has grown by 151,000 since 2010, whereas in the previous 13 years it fell by 420,000.” Te figures quoted refer to affordable homes, which are let at much higher prices than social rent homes.


A spokesman said that the next year will be pivotal in the housing sector with the commencement of much of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act, including proactive consumer regulation and the legal duties to comply with the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code. Te Business Plan sets out how the


Ombudsman will develop its role in light of these system changes and significant increases in demand – by working to improve local complaint handling, by implementing its remaining new powers and by delivering the remaining work on its strategic programmes. Te 2024/25 Business Plan also continues the


Ombudsman’s focus on expanding its casework activities and using its systemic work to help improve landlord services. Te Ombudsman is using this consultation


to seek views on what learning tools it can provide to support landlords in improving their complaint handling and to test support for changes to the fee regime to incentivise better complaint handling. Overall, 2024/25 is likely to be a difficult


year for social landlords and, as a result, the Ombudsman expects demand to continue to increase by between 50% and 80% compared to 2023/24.


www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMMApril/May 2024 | 5


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