Tenant group claims PRS is a ‘danger zone’ but critic warns of RRA consequences

Certainly any tenants currently paying a below market rent are in a danger zone – but the risk has been created by politicians not the landlords.

“Mr Twomey claimed Section 21 was a leading cause of homelessness and “landlords can evict for no reason at the drop of a hat.””

As I explain to every politician and local councillor who raises this canard – that s21 causes homelessness – it does not.

A shortage of rental properties causes homelessness.

Ask a simple question: “If a tenant receives a s21 notice but there are other similar properties in the vicinity that are affordable, will that tenant become homeless?” The answer is obvious.

What the Government and pressure groups such as Generation Rent should be doing is encouraging more people to rent out their properties.Perhaps landlords should be given positive incentives to improve their properties. Instead, we get threats of fines, tax on non-existent profits, nitpicking regulation, fines for trivial infractions and massive delays in evicting non-paying tenants.

If there is a “queue round the block to view a home”, that is caused by a shortage of housing stock, not by greedy landlords. If this is such a great idea, why allow auctions? Why advise house sellers to ask a realistic price and encourage competitive bidding?

Preventing “rental bidding” (aka establishing the market price) will, IMHO, backfire. Instead of asking for £1750 a month, a landlord will ask for £1950 and hold a Dutch Auction whereby the highest bid at or below £1950 is accepted. Rents will rise.

I wrote at length about the dangers of abolishing s21 in 2019. I stand by every word.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 19/02/2026 – 11:31
…we await the carnage to begin. I suspect the majority of tenant have no idea about the tsunami about to hit.

Immediately affected will be the ones looking for accommodation now and certainly after 1st May.

Saying Section 21 is the leading cause of homelessness shows the same mentality as saying the MOT test is the leading cause of cars being scrapped.

Are there not ANY tenants who can see what ALL landlords can see in Gen Rent’s posturing – a lefty agenda that uses the PRS to attack perceived wealth and does very little for encouraging a healthy PRS?

More nonsense from someone who is part of the organisation about to make life more difficult for tenants.
Yes perhaps a few rogue landlords or landlords that do not fix a dripping tap but councils are guilty for not taking action in the past reported by tenants.Really, how many properties have a queue around the block. Has Mr.Twomey mentioned anything about social housing which I would suggest is far worse.

Reply to the comment left by Keith Wellburn at 19/02/2026 – 12:15
Another useful analogy is to ask if redundancy notices are the cause of unemployment, since many unemployed people became unemployed after receiving one.

Applying impeccable Socialist logic, the solution to unemployment is therefore very simple: Make it unlawful for employers to make staff redundant!!

I watched the video and didn’t realise:

1 Mr Twomey hasn’t left school yet, and looks as though he has no real world experience.

2. Investigative journalism is dead, the presenter didn’t hold Mr Twomey to account at all.

Reply to the comment left by Ryan Stevens at 19/02/2026 – 15:52
You are absolutely right. What a softball interview! Twomey repeated that s21 allowed a landlord to evict a tenant “at any time” on two months’ notice. It would have been more honest if he had said: “after the contractual term of the tenancy ends the landlord can serve a s21 notice and if the tenant does not wish to leave he can spin things out for 9 to 18 months.”

The other man wrongly asserted that landlords of student properties would choose the tenants who accepted a 12 month contract. Of course that won’t happen as it will be impossible for a tenant to commit legally to staying for 12 months. Whatever the tenant says at the outset, the tenant will be able to give two months’ notice at any time. The problem for landlords whose students leave between November and April because they have fallen out with each other/ abandoned their course/got pregnant or for no reason whatever, will be in finding new tenants mid-way through the academic year.

Mr Twomay should be chuffed to bits.

He says Section 21 is a leading cause of homelessness. Therefore, with Section 21 abolished, there should be far fewer homeless people from 1st May.

I think it’s highly likely that the unintended consequences will overwhelm Mr Twomay’s tiny capacity to understand the housing market and the impact of a rapidly rising population.

The limited extent to which Sec21 has been abused is ‘very greatly exaggerated’ by Shelter, Gen Rant et al. The reality is that it makes very little business sense for any landlord to evict a tenant only to face heavy financial losses and considerable stress coping with the Court system. Evictions are and always have been a last resort.
Put in proper context the PRS houses 11million and eviction numbers are minuscule by any contextual comparison.
The eviction issue is a ‘whipped up’ emotive inaccuracy plied by ideologically politicised so-called charities!