Citizens Advice has has welcomed news that the government will support a Private Member’s Bill to give greater protection to tenants in privately-rented housing.
The charity’s chief executive said that eliminating retaliatory evictions “is a matter of basic fairness and is long overdue”.
Gillian Guy, Citizens Advice chief executive, said: “Protection from eviction is good news for four million UK households. In the past year Citizens Advice helped with 38% more eviction problems in cases where people were up to date on their rent.
“Although rent arrears is a common problem, the biggest cause of homelessness for private renters is the landlord ending their contract, rather than because tenants have fallen behind on their bills. Preventing landlords from turfing people out of their homes simply for asking for essential property repairs is a matter of basic fairness and is long overdue.
“Citizens Advice has long campaigned for greater protections for tenants and it’s welcome news that Government has given its support to this legislation. Significant and deep-rooted problems in our housing market mean there is no silver bullet to make it work.
“Tenants in all types of housing too often face high prices, low quality and an uphill struggle to keep a roof over their head and greater protection for renters would be a huge step in the right direction.”
