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Sadiq Khan asks ministers for rent freeze ahead of evictions return
London mayor Sadiq Khan has written to the government asking for the power to freeze private rents in the capital for two years ahead of evictions resuming this weekend.
In a letter to housing secretary Robert Jenrick, Mr Khan said: “I continue to have serious concerns that the government has squandered time afforded by the evictions ban to properly support renters and landlords to sustain tenancies in the longer term.
“This has become even more critical as the public health emergency created by COVID-19 develops into the deepest recession on record.”
He said research by the Greater London Authority (GLA) indicated that the coronavirus crisis is already having a financial impact on a third of London’s 2.2 million private renters and that half a million people are now potentially facing eviction in the capital.
It comes as the government’s ban on evictions, which has been in place since March, is set to come to an end this Sunday.
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Mr Khan is calling on ministers to grant him the powers to implement a two-year rent freeze in London which would prevent rents increasing both within and between tenancies for this period.
The London mayor had previously planned to make introducing rent controls a key part of his re-election bid before May’s mayoral elections were postponed due to the pandemic.
In addition to a rent freeze, Mr Khan demanded a package of measures to prevent renters from losing their homes, including grants for those who have fallen into arrears as a result of the pandemic and a scrapping of the benefit cap.
The government must also deliver on its manifesto commitment to end Section 21 no-fault evictions, alongside amending Ground 8 of Section 8 evictions so that judges have the power to refuse a possession claim when arrears have accumulated as a result of coronavirus, Mr Khan said.
Under current rules, judges have no discretion to stop a Section 21 or Ground 8 eviction as long as a few basic criteria are met.
Landlords can evict tenants using Ground 8 once they have accrued two months’ of arrears.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We’ve taken unprecedented action to support renters by banning evictions for six months, preventing people getting into financial hardship and helping businesses to pay salaries.
“We have now gone further by changing the law to increase notice periods to six months to help keep people in their homes over the winter months and introducing a ‘winter truce’ on the enforcement of evictions.
“Together, these measures strike a balance between protecting vulnerable renters and ensuring landlords whose tenants have behaved in illegal or anti-social ways have access to justice – in direct contrast to rent controls which could drive responsible landlords out, reduce investment in high-quality housing and ultimately push rents up.”
