The boss of housing charity Shelter has repeated the organisation’s previous assertion that tenants seeking properties in the private rented sector (PRS) too often face racism from both landlords and letting agents.
Polly Neate’s comments have been published by the BBC within a report on its news website which includes several case studies of black house hunters looking for rooms or properties to rent in the UK.
Neate has told the BBC that Shelter’s advice lines have been supporting tenants who have been turned away by landlords due to their race, and is calling on the Government to deliver on proposals to strengthen protections for private renters within the Renters’ Reform Bill.
Regulation
“A lack of regulation means landlords and letting agents are getting away with discriminating against people of colour who feel powerless to challenge them,” she says.
The BBC report also features Jabeer Butt, CEO of the Race Equality Foundation, who says budget cuts have severely reduced the ability of organisations such as local authorities and the Equality and Human Rights Commission to police discrimination within the PRS.
He also points the finger at the Right to Rent scheme, which requires landlords under threat of huge fines to do the vetting work of the Home Office’s Border Force to complete immigration checks on new tenants.
Power
“[This has] created an environment where landlords have much more power about who they choose to rent to,” he says.
“I can’t help but think that discrimination will be part and parcel of that.”
An NRLA report into the Right to Rent scheme a year after it was introduced in 2016 repeated claims by the JCWI that the scheme had the “potential to cause discrimination”.
Separate NRLA research shows that 44% of landlords reported they are less likely to consider letting to individuals without a British passport.
“This is likely to lock vulnerable individuals out of accessing a home in the private rented sector, especially as at the last census 17% of the population of England and Wales reported they did not have a passport,” it revealed.
Latest on the Right to Rent rules.
