Angela Rayner slams Section 21 evictions as cause of homelessness

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 23/02/2026 – 15:31
There’s a programme going on this afternoon as I type about asylum seekers in London registering as homeless and being sent off to private accommodation in County Durham. And this of course is tough for the families being moved and for poor communities in County Durham. The programme is called “Someone else’s problem exporting the housing crisis.”

They just quoted a figure saying that in some central London boroughs there has been a 41% drop in private rental accommodation. I suspect that this may be true and most private landlords will understand the reasons.

However, what isn’t true is what the government spokesman just quoted to the programme…that Labour is building 1.5 million new homes. That’s just a lie, it’s not happening. And the reason it can’t happen is that it’s not possible for Labour to do it by penalising the private sector.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 23/02/2026 – 16:31
The reason it can’t happen is because they do not have enough money. They are far too busy spending it on vanity projects.

Also, there are not enough builders!

Ms Rayner says she was ‘hesitant’ to put a timeline on when the government wants to end homelessness but claims Section 21 evictions are a contributing factor.

…because it wont end.
S21 doesn’t cause homelessness. Not enough accommodation causes that.

idiot

Reply to the comment left by Ryan Stevens at 23/02/2026 – 16:40
…or promising it to councils to spend on temp accommodation….oh the irony…

Reply to the comment left by Ryan Stevens at 23/02/2026 – 16:40
That’s right: They don’t have enough money and will never haven enough money because they don’t have enough money to spend on defence, they don’t have enough money to spend on energy security, and they didn’t have enough money to pay train drivers £70K per annum for a 4 day week when even China has driverless trains.

There’s no point in penalising the private sector (predominantly small landlords) from investing in housing, especially energy efficient housing.

One of the quotes that came out of yesterday’s radio 4 programme was “…the housing crisis that we inherited…” You can only tell that lie for so long before the electorate smells the b.s. This is a government that is no more honest than Boris Johnson’s government, no more competent than Lynn Truss’ government. They just tell their own lies and expect people to believe them…like claiming for example that everything is the fault of ‘austerity’ and it will take ten years of their policies to get the required market growth.

The UK is an economy dominated by small businesses, and that includes small landlord businesses. If labour attacks that then they cannot get the market growth that they need to pay for the ‘nice to have’ stuff.

And if they increase the rate of employers NI, drop the level at which it is paid, increase the minimum wage, give all employees the right to that wage regardless of age and experience, increase business rates, and give employees employment rights on day one, then builders can’t afford to build the accommodation that the country needs and buyers can’t afford to buy it. The trouble is that we have a government that is either not competent enough to see that or not honest enough to admit it.

That quote that appeared on yesterday’s radio 4 programme that they are ‘building 1.5 million new homes’ was just a lie. The quote about London councils seeing a 41% drop in availability of private rental accommodation is very likely to be true, given Labour’s policies and the introduction of the Renters Rights Act. You reap what you sow, and what Labour is sowing is homeless people.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 24/02/2026 – 10:53
I’ve issued 25 of my tenants with a Section 21 notice as a result of the Renters Rights Act. Well done Angela Rayner, Shelter, Generation Rent etc. – you can house them now.

I am also pulling out of the market after about 20 years.

On one flat in London I make about £900pm after costs and interest.

However, because the rental surplus before interest is added to my other income it is taxed at 40%, but I only get an interest credit at 20%. So I am paying £560pm of tax on £900pm of profit – a 62.2% tax rate.

This means that my after tax yield on my equity is 2.2% (probably no capital gain in the current market).

I can do better elsewhere at much less risk and with no chance of a fine of up to £30k!

Reply to the comment left by Cause For Concern at 24/02/2026 – 11:55
Not only is it the case that Angela Rayner, Generation Rent, Shelter etc. can’t house these people, everything that they’ve done makes the situation for homeless people worse. The labour government can’t do it either (and we all know they aren’t going to build 1.5 million homes) unless they facilitate market delivery; but what they have been doing and are continuing to do is the opposite of facilitating market delivery.

But to the left-wingers in a labour government and people like Generation Rent, or Shelter, this doesn’t matter because left-wingers don’t believe anybody should own anything anyway: To left-wingers market-failure is success.

But the people who suffer from market failure aren’t left-wing labour MPs with public sector salaries and pensions, or union leaders with generous salaries and pensions: The people who suffer from market failure are the sort of people that the programme on Radio 4 yesterday afternoon was all about. They suffer from the fact that almost no labour MP has any significant experience of business (although many labour MPs are landlords and ought to know better).

Reply to the comment left by Ryan Stevens at 24/02/2026 – 12:31
Absolutely correct. If the radio 4 programme yesterday afternoon was correct (and I suspect that it was) then there has been a 41% reduction in availability of private rental accommodation in some London boroughs. In my view, the posturing of politicians like Sadik Khan talking about rent controls doesn’t help.

But as you eloquently point out with your figures, the tax system is actually penalising a socially-useful activity that would help reduce the risk of asylum seekers being dumped on rural, former coal-mining communities in County Durham. It is tax policy that means that you’d be better off investing your money in something other than housing. And it’s that kind of stupidity that actually fuels people turning their backs on Labour and looking for somebody else to vote for. Labour come out with “…we’ve just got to stop Reform…” and all that they do when they say it is to advertise the party that is most likely to topple them in marginalised communities.

And when they repeatedly come out with the 1.5-million-new-homes-lie and everybody who knows anything about it can see that something else is happening then even people who don’t know much about the tax system or the economics can smell the b.s.

If they want to help the situation and come out with a U-turn that they actually need then they should reverse George Osborne’s policy of stopping landlords from offsetting their finance costs against rents and introduce capital allowances that would make it worth it to make properties more energy efficient. Normally I would say “don’t hold your breath here” but this labour government does have a track record of U-turns.