Private rental ‘no fault’ evictions triple within a year

Homeless charities are calling for urgent government action, as figures have revealed the number of ‘no fault’ evictions have tripled within a year.

Since the temporary ban on evictions during the pandemic was lifted, data from the Ministry of Justice shows that there were 4,900 repossessions of private rented property in the quarter to June 2022.

This is a 210% increase from the same time last year and could rise even further, with 18,201 claims made for repossession made in three months to June.

These figures are still 50% to 60% of pre-covid eviction levels, but it’s feared the situation will continue to get worse as households struggle with cost of living pressures.

Housing charity Shelter has the number of households found to be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless due to losing a private tenancy has increased by 96% since the beginning of the year.

Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Shelter, said: ‘Today’s figures paint a grim picture of households across England unable to keep their heads above water as the cost-of-living crisis bites. People who don’t leave their home before the bailiff comes are the ones who have run out of options and have nowhere else to go.

‘Every day our emergency helpline supports people having to make impossible choices between putting food on the table or paying their rent. Housing costs are people’s biggest outgoing and those who have nothing left to cut back will soon be left with nowhere to call home.

‘The government must urgently unfreeze housing benefit so it covers the true cost of renting before more families are evicted and pushed into homelessness. Whoever becomes the next Prime Minister needs to get a grip and put ending the housing emergency at the top of their to-do list.’

Research by the charity revealed that almost two in three private renters would struggle to cover moving costs if they were evicted in the current economic climate.

Analysis of government figures by Sky News has also shown that homelessness rates are now higher than they were before the pandemic in 40% of local authorities.

In 36 of 289 areas the number of homeless people per 1,000 households has grown by 50% between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2022.

Photo by Ilse Orsel