Shadow housing secretary blames Renters’ Rights Act for eviction notice
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly has been given notice to quit his private rented home because of the upcoming Renters’ Rights Act, he told a conference in London today.
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly has been given notice to quit his private rented home because of the upcoming Renters’ Rights Act, he told a conference in London today #UKhousingSir James said: “I have just personally received a notice from my landlord, who is selling the house that I rent.”
He made the remarks at the London Housing Summit, a conference organised by the Centre for London, in response to a previous speaker who expressed doubt about the ultimate impact of the legislation. The act will abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions and increase protections for private sector tenants.
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The new rules come into effect on 1 May. Yesterday, the website SpareRoom released survey data showing that 11% of tenants in England have been evicted or received notice since the act received royal assent six months ago.
However, the legislation has been welcomed by tenant groups and organisations such as Shelter and broadly welcomed by the social housing sector.
At the time the act received royal assent, Suzannah Young, policy leader at the National Housing Federation, said: “The removal of no-fault evictions that cause untold upheaval and stress, forcing renters to uproot their lives and putting those on low incomes at risk of homelessness, is an important step to curbing the country’s rising homelessness crisis.”
But at today’s conference Sir James said: “I am completely sure of the effect it will have.” He then explained he had received a notice from his own landlord.
He added: “That experience is replicated thousands of times across the country as a tenure type. The private rented sector is basically being regulated out of existence by this government.”
In an interview with Inside Housing this January, Sir James criticised the act, calling it the “wrong direction of travel”.
Sir James is Conservative MP for Braintree. In 2022, the Guardian and Spectator reported he lived in Blackheath, south-east London.
At the conference today, he also told attendees he favoured regeneration and building on brownfield sites.
He said: “Low-quality, low-density housing should be knocked down and replaced with higher-density, higher-quality housing.”
He also commented on the need for high standards of building: “Beauty matters, particularly in the public realm, because that is the beauty seen by people who cannot afford to buy beauty themselves.
“If you’re wealthy, you can surround yourself with attractive things.
“But if you’re not wealthy, the attractive things that surround you are things provided in the public realm, and everybody, everybody has a right to live among beautiful things.”
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