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Campaign of the Week Landlords have the power to evict tenants for no reason – but a new campaign is fighting back

THE gig economy traps people in precarious work, the hostile environment leaves people uncertain of their status in Britain and “no-fault evictions” mean tenants face being put out on the streets with just a couple of months notice.

Labour has thankfully pledged to ban zero-hours contracts, reverse government hostility to migrants and guarantee secure tenancies if and when they take power.

But in the meantime Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 allows private landlords in England to kick tenants out without giving a reason.

Elsewhere in Europe, such as in Germany, tenancies are indefinite. In fact, legislation introduced in Scotland in 2017 makes tenancies indefinite north of the border too.

Official government statistics show that 18,750 households were made homeless after being evicted from a privately rented home in 2016 alone.

Housing charity Shelter found that eviction from a private tenancy accounted for 78 per cent of the rise in homelessness between 2011 and 2016.

Alarmingly, 11 million private renters in England are left with little if any protection from eviction once their fixed-term contract ends.

This week, a group of like-minded housing activists, including Generation Rent, Bristol-based renters’ union Acorn and the London Renters Union, began a campaign to end no-fault evictions.

Gordon Maloney, from Scottish group Living Rent, told hundreds of supporters in Bermondsey, south London, that, if Scotland could scrap no fault evictions, so can England.

But he added that only wider renter power could properly address the imbalance between landlords and renters.

Katya Nasim from the London Renters Union said “our housing system is rigged,” with properties in London being snapped up by foreign investors at the expense of ordinary residents.

Rohan Kon from Acorn agreed, saying that “homes should not be a means for rich people to become richer.”

Green Party London Assembly member Sian Berry, who was at the launch, said: “One of my council candidate colleagues was hit with a Section 21 and had to move a few weeks before the election this year.”

She said it was “totally unfair [for them] to be at the mercy of landlords with no choice when to move like that.”

Generation Rent’s public and policy affairs manager Hannah Slater said “no-fault evictions cause insecurity and hardship for millions of private renters,” while the group’s director Dan Wilson Craw said section 21 “hurts everyone.”

He told the Morning Star he hoped the campaign would “build up pressure” on the government before a consultation on the security of tenure for private renters.

But he said the government needed to make lasting changes rather than “just offer landlords a few incentives to improve their offer to tenants very mildly.”

The campaign continues apace from Monday, with the launch of a petition and campaign video, in addition to a social media “thunderclap” to boost publicity.

Then the first open organising meeting for the campaign will be held on July 5 and you can register to attend here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/get-involved-in-the-campaign-to-endsection21-tickets-46977791840

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