Tory ministers silent as they’re urged to prevent ‘wave of evictions’
Homeless: this man was photographed living on the streets in Birmingham before Covid-19. Who knows how many more will be living there – prey to the virus – after August 23?
The government’s moratorium on evictions ends this week, putting tens of thousands of people in danger of eviction – in the middle of the biggest recession the UK has ever experienced.
The Tories have been urged to safeguard the people under threat – but they are strangely silent. One wonders whether they would be so quiet if their fellow Conservatives were being turfed out of their stately homes for any reason.
So when the ban on evictions in England and Wales ends on August 23, it seems likely to signal a wave of homelessness, with people forced onto the streets to face joblessness (as a result of the Tory recession), illness (because of the Tory failure to fight Covid-19) and the cold (because winter is coming).
Landlords in England have been able to issue notices of eviction three months in advance of taking possession; in Wales, the Labour government has ordered that they cannot take possession before six months have elapsed.
No reason need be given for them to take possession. Boris Johnson has promised to end “no-fault” evictions in a new “Renter’s Reform Bill” – but he has shown no inclination to bring such legislation to Parliament.
Previous prime minister Theresa May had made the same promise, but she never brought such a Bill to Parliament either.
And there really are a lot of private landlords stuffing the Tory benches in the House of Commons.
Of course, evictions and homelessness will have a knock-on effect on the economy – at a time of recession – as it costs the government and the emergency services more to help homeless people than it does to keep them housed.
The Tories know this because they’ve seen the same evidence I have.
And yet they are silent.
It seems they are more keen to inflict cruelty on others than to do their job – which is to run the country efficiently. Wasn’t that always the way with the toffs?
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Many more people will fall into debt and rent arrears when they have to claim Universal Credit and wait weeks on end for payments that then have loans deducted, just as IDS designed it to be, simply because he could. Many will then find themselves Sanctioned for failing to apply for non-existent jobs and will be forced into further debt in the form of Hardship payments that are repayable loans, leading eventually to further deductions. Only a psychopath could have designed such a punitive Welfare system.
Perhaps their lack of “Robust” and Dependable” or “World beating” proclamation or solution means there is actually a small chance something will be done about this.
renters are more likely to vote labour ( not that the current labour leader is anyone worth voting for! ) but you cannot vote being homeless! makes political sense to the morally bankrupt.
It will be like tent city in us this lot will not care has their mates the landlords will want those out who can’t afford their higher rents keeping stum or upset their mates
Last week, I was discussing this very thing with a private landlord. For what it’s worth, they still see themselves as the helpless victims of a system rigged in favour of the tenants.
He presented himself as almost desperate to keep tenants happy, perennially fearful of having to take any action around evictions or enforcement of any kind as it would cost him so much for legal fees.
No doubt, it CAN be drawn out and complex to get an eviction but we shouldn’t forget that he still owns the houses so, in general, even if he gets a difficult tenant who costs him money, he will still come out ahead in the end.
A lot of tory ministers are also landlords, conflict of interest?
Once the tenants have gone who are they going to replace them with?