New figures from the Ministry of Justice published today reveal
that:
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In the last twelve
months, 50,909 private renting
households in England were put at risk of eviction – equivalent
to 127,273 renters,
or 14renters per hour.
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A total of 19,854 private renting
households in England were evicted by bailiffs in the last
twelve months.
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The loss of a private tenancy remains the single biggest
trigger of homelessness in
England
Responding to the figures, Shelter’s Director of
Services Alison Mohammed, said: “These shocking new
figures show that hundreds of thousands of renters were at risk
of being made homeless last year – but sadly that’s only the tip
of the iceberg. At Shelter we help 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 trigger 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.
“But there’s no need to face this alone. At Shelter, our
helpline advisors are there 365 days a year to give advice and
support to people faced with losing their home, and the
horrendous prospect of homelessness.
“If you or someone you know needs support you can get free
help from us – just visit https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help .”
Notes to editors:
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All data is from the Mortgage and landlord possession
statistics published by the Ministry of Justice. Figures are
for the twelve months to the end of June 2017. All
figures are for England. The data is available
here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics
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The number of private renting households put at risk of
eviction is the number of possession claims issued 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 put at risk of losing their home is
estimated using the average household size for private rented
households in England (2.5 people). This is taken from the
Government’s English Housing Survey available
here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627686/Private_rented_sector_report_2015-16.pdf
The most common reason that 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 available
here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness
