Co-Op Bank gets in bed with Shelter to make wild claims

First, it was a claim by Generation Rent that families are being evicted every 15 minutes – but now Shelter has gone one better by saying a family is evicted every EIGHT minutes in England.

The charity says it has calculated the figure by using the number of families living in the private rented sector from the English Housing Survey – which is 188,000 families over the last three years – and surveyed private renters to conclude that 172 families are being served with a Section 21 notice every day, or one every eight minutes.

That’s despite the same government survey revealing that just 4% of tenants are asked to leave or are evicted by a landlord.

And most tenants – that’s 77% – ended a tenancy because they wanted to move home and not because they were evicted.

Housing charity teamed up with Co-Op Bank

In May, the housing charity teamed up with Co-Op Bank and they will stage a PR stunt in Parliament Square which will see home moving boxes being used to illustrate the number of families having to move home.

And Shelter has slammed the lack of progress Renters (Reform) Bill which will see the abolition of section 21 notices, because there is still no date for a second reading as ‘unacceptable’.

It says the government is ‘failing renters’.

Eviction figure has been extrapolated from a survey

Shelter’s figure for evictions has been extrapolated from a survey it carried out with YouGov of 1,910 renters in England, which includes 489 who have dependent children.

It reveals that nearly a fifth of tenants have moved at least three times in the last five years – and this shows that private renting is ‘insecure’, the charity claims.

Shelter’s chief executive, Polly Neate, said: “The government is failing renters by stalling on the Renters (Reform) Bill.

“For each day that MPs are off on their six-week summer break, another 172 families will be hit with a no-fault eviction notice, giving them just two months to pack up and leave their home.”

Lack of affordable social homes

She highlights that rents are rising quickly and there is a lack of affordable social homes and evicted families will have to ‘scramble’ to find a home to rent.

Ms Neate said: “Many parents will be forced to overpay and accept dire conditions, or deal with the prospect of becoming homeless.

“It is unacceptable that the Renters (Reform) Bill has made no progress in Parliament, when the very eviction notices the government promised to ban years ago are continuing to land on people’s doorsteps in their droves.”

She added: “The government must bring back the Bill as soon as Parliament returns. England’s 11 million private renters are depending on it.”

‘Why we’re campaigning on this issue alongside Shelter’

The chief executive of Co-Op Bank, Nick Slape, said: “Fighting poverty and inequality across the UK is extremely important to our customers, and that’s why we’re campaigning on this issue alongside Shelter.

“We were encouraged to see this Bill brought to Parliament, but we need to see tangible action from the government now. Families across the country are depending on it.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “Our landmark Renters (Reform) Bill will deliver a better deal for renters and landlords.

“We are abolishing section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, giving tenants greater security in their homes and making it easier for landlords to get rid of antisocial tenants.”