Labour reveals thousands of families face homelessness in run up to Christmas

Thousands of families are facing homelessness in the final quarter of this year due to the Conservative’s failure to end no-fault evictions, new analysis from Labour has found.

Labour estimates on current trends 5,758 households could be threatened with homelessness in the final quarter of 2023, covering the Christmas and New Year period.

The analysis also suggests on current trends up to 2,447 households face being evicted by bailiffs in a so-called ‘accelerated procedure’.

It comes as Labour’s Deputy Leader and Shadow Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and Shadow Minister for Homelessness Mike Amesbury is due to visit a Crisis centre in London this coming Tuesday (19^th December). There, they will reiterate Labour’s commitment to get the job done and bring an end to no-fault evictions.  

The Government’s recently introduced a Renter’s Reform Bill which makes provision to end Section 21 evictions, but they have since admitted that these evictions won’t be made illegal until “reforms to the justice system are in place”.

Angela Rayner, Labour Deputy Leader and Shadow Housing Secretary, said: 

“A toxic mix of rising rents, the cost-of-living crisis and a failure to end no-fault evictions is hitting the most vulnerable this Christmas. 

“On the Tories’ watch, a homelessness crisis has erupted. People are dying on the streets, record children are living in temporary accommodation and private renters have no legal protection against their landlord making them homeless on whim.   

“Having waited years for ministers to deliver on their promise to end no fault evictions, tens of thousands more families now face the risk of homelessness because of this further delay. The next Labour Government will get the job done. 

“Only Labour has the vision and will to tackle homelessness, and we know that we can meet our ambitions because we have done it before. We will usher in the long-term structural change needed to bring an end to the Tories’ housing crisis with our plan for safe, secure, affordable homes.” 

Ends 

Notes

S21 homelessness 

The government’s statutory homelessness live tables, published on 30 November, show 6,640 households were threatened with homelessness as a result of no-fault evictions in Q2 2023, more than any quarter since the relevant data was first published in 2018. This is a year-on-year increase of 10.3 per cent from 6,020 in 2022. 

Q4 2022 figures show 5,220 households threatened with homelessness because of valid Section 21 notices. Applying a 10.3 per cent uplift finds up to 5,707 households could be threatened with homelessness in the final quarter of this year because of no fault evictions, covering the Christmas and New Year period. 

Statutory homelessness figures can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness  

Bailiff evictions 

The government’s mortgage and landlord possession statistics, published on 9 November, show 2,307 people were evicted by bailiffs due to no-fault evictions (the ‘accelerated procedure’) in Q3 2023, with one more quarter of data available than the homelessness statistics. This is a year-on-year increase of 28.7 per cent from 1,792 in Q3 2022. 

Q4 2022 figures show 1,924 households evicted by bailiffs due to S21 orders. Applying a 28.7 per cent uplift finds up to 2,447 households could be evicted by bailiffs in the final quarter of this year because of no fault evictions, covering the Christmas and New Year period. 

Mortgage and landlord possession statistics can be found on table eight here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics-july-to-september-2023  

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8756/