Shelter’s Head of Research misled public on TV

Shelter’s Head of Research misled public on TV

17:30 PM, 15th October 2018, About 6 years ago 59

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Last Thursday Hilary Burkitt, the Head of Research at Shelter, spoke about the PRS on the BBC’s Politics Live programme, about 22 minutes from the start. click here

She said “people don’t have the stability at the moment, they can be chucked out by their landlords at a moment’s notice”.

That is untrue. Shelter’s own website says the opposite: “Only court bailiffs can evict you from your home” click here

What she described would be a criminal offence, as Shelter’s website explains. click here

It is not surprising that tenants feel insecure when they hear deliberately misleading information like this from someone apparently knowledgeable.

Burkitt also said “We know now that losing a tenancy in the private rented sector is the leading cause of people becoming homeless in this country”. Shelter’s website says this is also untrue.

Firstly, it explains that the termination of a tenancy is not the cause of homelessness. The cause is whatever triggered the eviction: click here

Secondly, since June 2017 it has been showing the real reason: “The inability to find a new place to live once a short term tenancy ends is a leading cause of homelessness in Great Britain. New research by Shelter identifies a number of reasons why people on low incomes are increasingly unable to find a home and secure a tenancy in the private rented sector.click here

You would expect the Head of Research to be familiar with the results of this research, wouldn’t you?

Shelter has a rule on its website about: “never deliberately misleading or confusing a member of the publicclick here

Unfortunately this only applies to face-to-face fundraisers.  Shelter’s managers seem to have carte blanche on television programmes to spout propaganda which is given the lie by Shelter’s own body of knowledge and research.

“Does the truth not matter to Shelter?” Click here

“Shelter CEO is also confused about no-fault evictions” Click Here

Shelter is morally bankrupt: Click here


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Comments

Old Mrs Landlord

15:50 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Sorry my last post was somehow sent when I was in the middle of editing so is a mess but I hope you get the gist of my reasons for not having pledged to join.

Old Mrs Landlord

15:53 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to Dale Roberts: sorry for assuming you were male.

Appalled Landlord

15:53 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Luk Udav at 16/10/2018 - 15:18
I am very careful not to misrepresent. I know perfectly well what she meant - she meant to make the public think that tenants can be chucked out by their landlords at a moment’s notice, as part of Shelter’s brainwashing campaign for the abolition of Section 21.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when Shelter’s Head of Research can feel free to lie on television. You may think it’s silly for me to point this out, others may disagree. But to accuse me of misrepresentation for doing so, accurately, is to invert logic. It’s like something from Alice in Wonderland.

Seething Landlord

15:56 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Larry Sweeney at 16/10/2018 - 15:28
Not sure what point you are making in saying that there are more rogue tenants than rogue landlords, but for once I agree with you.
You claim that I have made only one accurate statement so perhaps you could identify the inaccuracies in my other statements as I am not aware of any.

Rod

15:58 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

The whole system is rediculous, it " doesn't pay to work"! E.g. I know of a tenant on HB. living in a nice flat in good area that to buy would cost quite a lot money "but" this tenant on HB has everything paid for and living there "absolutely for free' very clever and also treats the l/l like staff! It's no wonder the whole world and his 'dog' want to come to the uk!

Seething Landlord

16:03 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Richard Adams at 16/10/2018 - 15:44
If you really want to know, I think I adopted the "seething" epithet when in the early days we were all up in arms about Bank of Ireland (remember them?) and all the other rubbish that was being introduced at around that time.

Richard Adams

16:13 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Seething Landlord at 16/10/2018 - 16:03
I sure do remember the Bank of Ireland scenario and of course the similar one with West Brom. The fight against the latter you may recall was won but only because a number of us "pledged" to join the legal action. Had none of us done so I doubt it would have got off the ground. One hell of a lot of West Brom BTL mortgage borrowers declined to do so preferring to sit on the fence and "not get involved". I sort of smell the same thing happening now with the Landlords Alliance. I guess you and I will never see eye to eye regarding all the aspects of this. OK some West Brom borrowers probably quite genuinely could not raise the wind to support the action but for the Landlords Alliance we are talking peanuts.

Larry Sweeney

16:19 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

To Old Mrs Landlord. Dont get hung up on typos. That is all they are. We have solicitors who have pledged so clearly they are not concerned about our tone. You do not want to join us, that is fine. It is your choice to remain with an organisation that had failed to prevent sect 24, failed to prevent licensing even worse assists councils with their dodgy schemes
As regards sailing close to the wind , i repeat this statement. The councils schemes are dodgy. Will they sue us?.
The softly softly approach has not and does not work Mrs Landlord. Surely you see that. If the other organisations were effective we would not be having this conversation and I and many other landlords would be far happier. As we face the abolition of sect 21, and rent caps on top of the crap we already have had to endure, we have no choice but to fight back hard. I make no apologies for that. I wish you all the best Mrs Landlord with your business, but I and the countless landlords who pledged will not be changing course one bit. We are Going to expose the stupidity of Government and Council policy and we are going to call out the housing charity that houses nobody.

Mick Roberts

16:20 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

U said:
Firstly, it explains that the termination of a tenancy is not the cause of homelessness. The cause is whatever triggered the eviction.

That is exactly it, majority of us don't want to give a tenant a Section 21. Come ask the actual people giving out the Section 21 why we doing it.
But Oh No, they'd rather believe the tenants words saying I've done nothing wrong at all. Two sides to every story.

Seething Landlord

16:22 PM, 16th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Richard Adams at 16/10/2018 - 16:13
Richard, I have never had a mortgage with West Brom but supported and contributed to the campaign because it was a cause that I agreed with and had far reaching implications. I rejoiced as much as anyone when the case was eventually won. As you say, we will have to agree to differ on the new Alliance.

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