New analysis from Westminster Labour reveals the cost of Conservative inaction on ‘no-fault’ evictions as 619 local families have faced proceedings to eject them from their home in the years since the Tories promised to ban the practice in April 2019.

‘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. The
true scale of the problem could be worse, as not all Section 21 notices will
necessarily reach this stage.

There are 52,137 households privately renting in the City of Westminster – each and
every one still vulnerable to no fault evictions more than 4 years after Government
promises to stamp them out.
Labour has called for 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.

Publishing the analysis, Rachel Blake, Labour’s candidate for Cities of London & Westmister, said:

“Families in Westminster 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 Cities of London & Westminster,
and the utter failure of Conservatives to provide competent government is making
things harder and harder and harder.

“People in Cities of London & Westminster 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.