Dozens of Mansfield households homeless last autumn

Data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities shows 40 households in Mansfield were assessed to be homeless between October and December last year.

This was equal to the 40 households found to be homeless over the same period in 2020.

Of those already understood to be homeless, 26 found accommodation last autumn.

Across England, 33,800 households became homeless in the last three months of 2021, down from 35,030 over the same period a year before.

Housing charities have blamed a rise in ‘no-fault’ evictions for increasing homelessness in England.

Despite a recent pledge from the Government to scrap them, landlords are still able to evict tenants through a section 21 notice – which can provide tenants with as little as eight weeks’ notice to leave, sometimes without reason – once the fixed term in their tenancy agreement expires.

Across England, no-fault evictions are up 37 per cent compared with 2019, before the pandemic.

About 5,260 households were threatened with homelessness as a result of them last autumn.

Powerless

Shelter, a charity working to end homelessness, has described no-fault evictions as ‘blunt, brutal and indiscriminate’.

Polly Neate, Shelter chief executive, said: “If landlords follow the process, as it stands they can turf people out of their homes for no reason and tenants are powerless to do anything about it.

“These are real people chewed up and spat out by our broken private renting system, and who now face an uphill battle to find somewhere to call home again.”

Alicia Kennedy, director of housing campaign group Generation Rent, said a booming property market is to blame for an increase in evictions.

She said: “With house prices and rents surging, landlords have been cashing in by selling up or replacing tenants with people who can afford to pay more.

“The cost of this upheaval is falling on the tenants themselves and stretched local authorities.”

She said the Government ‘must act’ to provide a more stable rental market.

According to the same figures, 8,530 households in England were supported by councils last autumn because their landlord was evicting them to sell or re-let the property, including 25 in Mansfield.

A DLUHC spokesman said it was bringing forward reforms to help renters, including ending no-fault evictions.