Low-income tenants spending nearly two thirds of income on rent as no fault bailiff evictions continue to rise

Low-income tenants spending nearly two thirds of income on rent as no fault bailiff evictions continue to rise

Shelter calls for limit to in-tenancy rent hikes to stop renters being pushed into homelessness

The government has today released two separate sets of statistics which reveal that runaway rents are leaving private renters increasingly at risk of losing their homes, while no-fault bailiff evictions continue to climb across England.

Alarming new figures from the English Housing Survey show that private renters in the lowest income bracket face the heaviest housing cost burden of any tenure in England:

Low-income private renters are spending almost two thirds (63%) of their income on housing, up from 56% in 2019/20.

Low-income private renters spend 9% more of their income on housing than mortgage holders, and 27% more than social renters in the same income bracket.

Across all income levels, private renters are shelling out more than a third (34%) of their household income on housing costs every month, up from 32% in 2019/20.

Until now, Section 21 evictions have been the leading cause of instability in private renting as they allow landlords to evict tenants with just two months' notice, with no reason given. A separate set of figures, released by the Ministry of Justice today and covering January to March, show 2,931 households in England were removed from their homes by bailiffs because of a no-fault eviction in the first three months of the year - an increase of 9% in a year.

The government has promised to scrap Section 21 as part of its Renters’ Rights Bill, which is currently making its way through the House of Lords. Doing away with no fault eviction has the potential to transform private renting for the better. But with average monthly rents soaring to a staggering £1,386 across England - up 7.8% in a year - Shelter warns that unless action is taken to limit huge jumps in rent, unaffordable rent increases will simply replace Section 21 as a form of no-fault eviction.

Alicia Walker, Assistant Director of Advocacy & Activism at Shelter, said: “Thousands of renters are being marched out of their homes because of an unjust policy that should already be history. No fault evictions must be scrapped by summer, but landlords can’t be allowed to continue using colossal rent hikes as a loophole to unfairly force tenants out.

“Rents and living costs are spiralling across England and tenants on the lowest pay are keeping hold of their homes by the skin of their teeth. Every day our frontline teams hear from families who’ve been hit with rent increases they just cannot afford - forced to pay up or ship out, with little standing between them and the nightmare of homelessness.

“With the Renters’ Rights Bill making its way through the House of Lords, this is the last chance to guarantee renters real security. If the government wants the Bill to be truly transformative, it must cap rent increases in line with inflation or wage growth to make renting genuinely safe, secure, and more affordable.”

ENDS