Reform UK council chair resigns after ‘illegally renting out unsafe properties’

Local residents said the tenants of one of Edward Harris’s homes had been living without hot water for two years. Photograph: Warwickshire County Council

A Reform UK council chair has resigned after it was found he was illegally running two unsafe rental properties, according to a neighbouring local authority.

Edward Harris, the chair of Warwickshire county council, owned two unlicensed houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in Staffordshire that had “multiple serious safety failures”, according to Labour-led Tamworth borough council.