New figures from the Ministry of Justice
published today reveal that:
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In 2016 53,201 private renting households in England were put
at risk of eviction – equivalent to 131,938 renters, which is
15 renters per hour.
-
A total of 21,596 private renting households in England were
evicted by bailiffs in 2016.
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The loss of a private tenancy remains the single biggest
cause of homelessness in the country (Link to the
latest DCLG homelessness stats for England)
Responding to the figures, Shelter’s interim
chief executive , said:
“New figures showing hundreds of thousands of renters were at
risk of being made homeless last year are shocking but only the
tip of the iceberg. Sadly, there are many more people forced to
leave a property who don’t go through the courts.
“At Shelter, we know that losing private rented
accommodation is the single biggest cause of homelessness and
every day we speak to more and more people faced with this
terrifying dilemma. Scandalously, many of these people are
families left with nowhere to go.
“The government’s focus on renters outlined in their
housing white paper this week is right but their offer of three
year tenancies will only help a handful of people living in new
build-to-rent accommodation. Instead, we want to see five year
tenancies rolled out for everyone. To end this crisis for good,
the government must build more affordable homes that people on
low incomes can actually afford to live in.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
The proportion of landlords saying that tenants
left before the case is heard in court is from a Yougov survey of
1071 private landlords July 2015, online. This is based on 184
landlords who had needed to remove a tenant in the last three
years.
All data is from the Mortgage and landlord
possession statistics published by the Ministry of
Justice. Figures are for 2016. All figures are
for England. The data is available
here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics-october-to-december-2016
The number of private renting households put at risk
of eviction is the number of possession claims issues by a
private landlord or through the accelerated procedure. The number
of renters evicted by bailiffs is the number of repossessions by
county court bailiffs used by private landlords and by landlords
using the accelerated procedure. Accelerated procedures are used
by landlords to evict tenants at the end of a fixed term tenancy.
Therefore, they are used to evict private renting
households.
The number of people losing their home is estimated
using the average household size for private rented households in
England (2.48 people). This is taken from the Government’s
English Housing Survey: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/501068/2014-15_Section_1_Households_tables_and_figures_FINAL.xlsx
The most common reason households found to be
statutorily homeless lose their last settled home is the ending
of an assured shorthold tenancy. An assured shorthold tenancy is
the name for the type of tenancy used in the private rented
sector. This is taken from the Department for Communities and
Local Government (DCLG) Live homelessness tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness
