Government funds Shelter to promote Renters’ Rights Act to tenants
2 months ago | 7 comments
Shelter CEO wants to work with private landlords
9:30 AM, 3rd February 2026, 2 months ago
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Shelter’s new chief executive hints she is willing to work with private landlords to tackle the housing crisis.
In an interview with Inside Housing, Sarah Elliott says she has had a constructive meeting with the chief executive of a landlord association.
Ms Elliott became the head of Shelter in September last year, after Polly Neate stood down following seven years in the role.
Going to have to work as a collective to end homelessness
Ms Elliott told Inside Housing that under her leadership, the housing charity wants to take a “convening role to get everyone around the table.”
She said she has already met with a private landlord association to discuss the impact of the Section 21 abolition under the Renters’ Rights Act. She did not name the association but hinted at a shift in the way Shelter engages with the private rented sector.
She told Inside Housing: “I think we’re very pragmatic, and I think our role will need to evolve. Where there are rogue landlords who are not doing the right thing, we clearly will not be on their side.
“But I do think we’re going to have to work as a collective if we’re going to improve the system and end homelessness.”
Ms Elliott added the housing charity wants to work with councils and housing developers to build more social housing.
Ms Neate criticised private landlords
This marks a shift from her predecessor, Polly Neate, who had criticised private landlords and accused the Conservative government of “bowing down to vested interests while renters are marched out of their homes in their thousands” over delays to the Renters’ (Reform) Bill.
Ms Neate also claimed that Section 21 evictions were a driving force behind homelessness, despite government evidence suggesting otherwise.
Last year, Ms Neate was nominated as a crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, with the Independent House of Lords Appointments Commission describing her as “an expert in social policy, specialising in housing, homelessness and violence against women and girls.”
Tags:
Abolition of Section 21 Evictions, polly neate shelter, Renters’ Rights Act, Sarah Elliot, Shelter
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Member Since June 2019 - Comments: 761
9:25 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
Too late the damage has already been done, can you honestly see shelter advocating for landlord rights?
Member Since March 2024 - Comments: 281
9:39 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
It will need at least a decade of constructive input to counter the damage done by Polly Neate.
I had to put a clause in my will instructing my Executors that their power to select an alternative housing charity (if necessary) to the one I have left a bequest to, excludes Shelter.
Member Since October 2025 - Comments: 6
9:52 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
Shelter represents the biggest disaster for tenants and landlords in the history of letting. Homelessness is soaring as victimised landlords exit the market. Councils, too, have shot themselves in the foot with greed that makes Rachmanism pale by comparison. Couple that with Milliband’s net zero nonsense, and UK Inc. is heading for bankruptcy.
Member Since August 2016 - Comments: 1190
10:05 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
I’m not interested whatsoever in housing the homeless. It’s not my job and not the section of the rental market that I choose to operate in. No doubt my “choice” will soon be classed as “discrimination”. And people who don’t like my “discrimination” will be “offended”.
Member Since December 2025 - Comments: 17
10:15 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Dylan Morris at 03/02/2026 – 10:05
You are housing people, and if you don’t they will find alternative, less attractive accommodation, in turn crowding out less qualified tenants. At the bottom of this are the very marginal tenants who will now be homeless. Simple maths. If the stock of rental properties decreases and the number of people wanting to rent stays the same or increases, people will be homeless.
Member Since November 2022 - Comments: 7
10:24 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
Shelter?
I think they burned their bridges with LL’s a long time ago. Any LL that get involved with them is a fool.
Much of what we have now in the RRA was spawned by them, so let them see the damage it’s done and will continue to do.
Now can someone remind me what her salary is. A “charity” remember! I consider them anti landlord activists.
Member Since September 2018 - Comments: 3508 - Articles: 5
10:54 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
hahahahahhaahh!
BOG OFF!
Member Since November 2022 - Comments: 66
10:59 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
Nah, not falling for that soft trap!
Alright mate, here’s an idea, let’s take your ~£150k “charity” salary and invest that in a few small flats that you can manage yourself personally. Say 5 “low cost” homes for the UC lot?
And all the profit goes to buying more low cost homes for the UC lot.
Because you deeply care, right?
Member Since January 2015 - Comments: 1431 - Articles: 1
11:05 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
Bit too late for that.
Reap what you sow Shelter (and Generation Rent and all the tenant anti-landlords and landlord bashers)
Tent cities by 2028/2030 here we come
Member Since February 2024 - Comments: 69
11:51 AM, 3rd February 2026, About 2 months ago
Shelter can’t be trusted,,, they’re just buttering up to find ways PRS landlords have found to manage the situation to survive, then scupper it.
Anyone with any knowledge of the rental market knows the majority of landlords didn’t/don’t serve Section 21 eviction orders unless they had to !!! The main cause of Section 21’s is tenants who refuse to honour their commitments to another human being and pay the rent. Oh of course that assumes PRS landlords are human beings, with expenses and families, and who need to eat – which many politicians and charities like Shelter don’t acknowledge!