Chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised to push through the ban on no-fault evictions in her inaugural speech to the Treasury today.
“For those that are in the private rented sector, we are also going to reform the rules around that,” she said. “We will finally get rid of no fault evictions [for] those who are not fortunate enough to either own their own home or have social housing.”
No fault evictions, otherwise known as section 21, allow landlords to legally evict tenants for no given reason with a notice period of two months.
“We welcome the Chancellor's commitment today to abolish no fault evictions — a long-overdue step to rebalance renters’ rights. We hope the government will commit to this in the King's Speech shortly,” said Tom Darling, campaign manager at the Renters Reform Coalition.
“For renters to have genuine security in their homes, it’s essential any new legislation closes the loopholes in the previous renters reform bill which allowed no fault evictions to continue by the backdoor”
“We welcome the Chancellor's commitment today to abolish no fault evictions — a long-overdue step to rebalance renters’ rights.”
Dan Wilson Craw, deputy chief executive of Generation Rent, also welcomed the commitment to ending no-fault evictions. “This will empower tenants to raise complaints when needed and protect families from homelessness," he said. “In its manifesto, the Labour Party said these evictions would be abolished immediately so we look forward to the new bill’s inclusion in the King's Speech next week.”
The number of no-fault eviction claims against private renters in London soared 52 per cent in one year, according to data from City Hall.
Almost 26,000 London households were threatened with homelessness or made homeless via a section 21 in 2023, according to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities own statistics.
“This will empower tenants to raise complaints when needed and protect families from homelessness."
A ban on no-fault evictions was originally a Conservative government manifesto promise form 2019 and included in the long-awaited Renters Reform Bill, but was delayed until the Conservative government was satisfied that the court system would be better resourced to protect landlords evicting tenants for anti-social behaviour.
In any eventuality, the Bill failed to pass before the general election was called.
Generation Rent also called for more protections for private renters. "Reeves acknowledges that those of us in privately rented homes are not ‘fortunate enough’ to own our homes or live in social housing. As well as evictions, too many of us are forced out of our homes by unaffordable rent rises,” said Wilson Craw.
“Labour promised to empower tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases. For this to be meaningful, new protections must go further to slam the brakes on soaring rents, limiting increases to the lower of wage growth or inflation.”
London’s rental crisis has deepened over the past year, with 11 per cent rent hikes on average across the city and renters reporting struggles to pay for food and utilities.
Reeves also re-committed to the Labour manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million homes before the end of this Parliament.
“‘We’ve got to get Britain building and got to get families on the housing ladder,” said the Chancellor. “Britain today has lower home ownership than it should do, and the Labour government wants to be the party of home ownership.”
"Restoring mandatory targets alone will not be enough to solve the housing crisis.”
In response to questions, the Chancellor said that affordable housing social housing were an “important part of the mix” and would be “included in the 1.5 million homes” target.
However, the homes will not be built by councils but rather through “unlocking private sector investments”.
"Restoring mandatory targets alone will not be enough to solve the housing crisis,” said Mark Buddle, head of residential development at Bidwells, a London-based property consultancy.
“While it is a positive step, it will only be effective if a wider policy environment is far more supportive of development than it has been in the past,” he added. “Labour is making the right noises around this, through whether they will be able to deliver on their 1.5 million target will depend on how forcefully they reform Britain's sclerotic, overly localised planning system.
