Thousands of people have had their homes seized after receiving controversial ‘no-fault’ eviction notices despite Labour pledging to abolish them, new data shows.
Labour said in its election manifesto it would abolish Section 21 eviction notices “immediately” after winning the election. A year on, and the relevant legislation still progressing through parliament means that the ban is still not in effect.
According to Ministry of Justice figures released on Thursday, 11,400 households received no-fault evictions by bailiffs in the year to June.
The number of bailiff evictions is an eight per cent rise on the previous year, continuing a trend of a heightened use of the notices.
Housing charity Shelter said it is “unconscionable” that renters “continue to be marched out of their homes by bailiffs” a year after Labour’s election victory.
It warned that nearly 1,000 households could be evicted from their homes by bailiffs every month until the ban on the notices is finally put in place.
Section 21 notices grant landlords the power to evict tenants from their properties at two months’ notice without needing to give any reason. Former prime minister Theresa May first announced the Conservatives’ intention to abolish Section 21 notices in April 2019.
Shelter described no-fault evictions as one of the leading causes of homelessness. Mairi MacRae, its director of campaigns and policy, said: “It is unconscionable that more than a year after the government came to power, thousands of renters continue to be marched out of their homes by bailiffs because of an unfair policy that the government said would be scrapped immediately.
“For far too long, tenants’ lives have been thrown into turmoil by the rank injustice of ‘no-fault’ evictions. At the whim of private landlords, thousands of tenants are being left with just two months to find a new home, plunging them into a ruthless rental market and leaving many exposed to the riptide of homelessness.”
The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill, sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, is currently in its final stages. It is expected to pass before the end of the year, or early 2026 at the latest.
Alongside abolishing Section 21 notices, it would give tenants a 12-month protected period at the beginning of their tenancy, alongside increasing the notice requirement for landlords to evict on other grounds from two to four months.
The bill would also provide protection against ‘backdoor eviction’, where tenants are effectively pushed out by above-market rent increases, by giving them greater powers to challenge them.
Housing charity Crisis has called on the government to bring forward the legislation and name a date when it will be implemented.
Matt Downie, chief executive at Crisis, said: “Despite good intentions from the Westminster government, thousands of people are still being unjustly evicted from their homes and threatened with – or even forced into – homelessness.”
The new data comes after Labour MP Rushanara Ali recently resigned her role as homelessness minister following reports she gave tenants in a property she owned four months’ notice to leave, before relisting the property with a £700 rent increase just weeks later.
Such a move would likely not be allowed under the Renters’ Rights Bill, which is set to introduce new protections for tenants, including banning landlords who evict tenants in order to sell their property from relisting it for rent for six months.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “No one should live in fear of a Section 21 eviction and these new figures show exactly why we will abolish them through our Renters’ Rights Bill, which is a manifesto commitment and legislative priority for this government.
“We’re determined to level the playing field by providing tenants with greater security, rights and protections in their homes and our landmark reforms will be implemented swiftly after the bill becomes law.”
