A campaign group for renters has hailed putting an end to the "enormous issue" of no-fault evictions "a huge step forward". But CEO of Generation Rent Ben Twomey also predicts at least 15,000 people will be evicted through bailiffs in the first six months of 2025 if the new legislation that promises more rights for renters is not passed sooner. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00This is a huge moment for renters potentially. We're living in hope because it's not past
00:04Parliament yet, it's only about halfway through that process, but if it does go through then we're
00:08going to finally see the end of section 21 no-fault evictions. Those are the evictions that mean we
00:13don't have to have done anything wrong and we can be kicked out of our home at a moment's notice
00:18with just two months in which to pack our bags. So putting an end to those types of evictions
00:22will be a huge step forward in protecting tenants. It's an enormous issue. These no-fault evictions
00:27are a leading cause of homelessness. That means that the record number of children in temporary
00:31accommodation right now, 150,000 of them, a national scandal, is largely in part to these
00:38types of evictions. So we're hearing all sorts of stories from tenants every single day who are
00:42being forced out and we're predicting that at least 15,000 people will be evicted through
00:47bailiffs in the next six months if they don't get this law through sooner. The glaring gap right now
00:53is that so many renters can't afford to pay their rent. So that's a problem in terms of how affordable
00:58our homes are, but it also means that we don't have security in our homes because if a rent
01:02rise is happening, unchecked, the landlord has no limit to how much they can raise it by, then that
01:08can force people out of the door anyway regardless of whether they're being evicted. So we need the
01:12government to step in and slam the brakes on soaring rents. So to tackle the unaffordable rents
01:17that we're facing, the most common sense and quick answer to that is to slam the brakes on soaring
01:22rents to limit the amount by which landlords can raise the rent when someone's in the home.
01:28Wider than this, because it's not just one thing that needs to happen, wider than this we need more
01:32homes to be built, particularly social homes and affordable homes where people want to live.
01:36The government has a big ambition with that so we'll be holding them to account as they deliver
01:40it and we also need to make sure that benefits are in line with what people are being charged
01:45for their housing. So we need the government to increase the rate of benefits for people who most
01:49need to have that money to afford their rent.