, Labour’s Shadow Housing
Secretary:
This is yet another betrayal of renters by the Conservatives, and
yet another example of Rishi Sunak’s weakness which means he
always puts party before country.
Having broken the justice system, the Tories are now using their
own failure to break their promises to renters in the most
underhand way. The government must give a statement to Parliament
today.
Fourteen years of Tory failure have failed renters. Labour will
ban no fault evictions, no ifs no buts.
Ends.
Transcript from interview on Sunday with Laura
Kuenssberg - 11th February 2024
LK: It hasn't happened yet, can you guarantee the 11 million
renters in this country that you will end this before the general
election?
MG: Yes we have a bill, it's gone through its stages in the House
of Commons and that bill does a number of things to help people
in the private rented sector, including ending no-fault
evictions.
Why does that matter some might ask? Well it is the case there
are a small minority of unscrupulous landlords who use the threat
of eviction, either to jack up rents or to silence people who are
complaining about the quality of their homes. It's important that
we deal with that abuse because the vast majority of landlords do
a great job and you need a healthy private rented sector as part
of a balanced housing economy.
LK: And you are explicitly saying this morning that practice will
be banned, it will not be allowed to happen before the general
election.
MG: That what it says in the bill.
LK: You are confident...
MG: The bill ends Section 21.
LK: Ah but there's a different factor here, because previously
you've said, well the courts might not be able to cope so we
might bring in a new law, but it actually might still happen
because the courts aren't ready. So I ask you again, just to be
really explicit, will this practice have ended by the time of the
next general election?
MG: We will have outlawed it and we will have put the money into
the courts in order to ensure that they enforce that.
LK: Okay that's very explicit there, and we've got that on the
record.
