Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has increased his funding to support and advise private renters exploited by rogue landlords and facing illegal eviction.

He has pledged £60,000 for the social justice charity Cambridge House which is expected to help its Safer Renting programme reach hundreds of vulnerable tenants amid fears that the prospect of no-fault evictions becoming illegal could be fuelling a spike in illegal evictions.

Despite having no formal powers over private renting, Khan says he wants to stand up for London’s 2.7 million private renters, pointing to Ministry of Justice data that shows the number of no-fault eviction claims has risen 62% in the last year to 11,457 in 2023.

New City Hall analysis finds that more than 30,000 renting households in the capital have faced a Section 21 claim since ministers first pledged to outlaw them in 2019 – but doesn’t say why such evictions have taken place.

The reasons why responsible landlords use a Section 21 notice vary but include when tenants stop paying the rent and build up arrears or have become uncommunicative or refuse to allow entry to tradespeople.

Dither

“Any sense of relief we felt when the Renters Reform Bill finally limped into Parliament last year has now been washed away by months of dither and delay,” he says.

“Meanwhile, in the real world, London renters are losing their homes at a rapidly increasing rate both from the still-legal Section 21 and the actions of unscrupulous rogue landlords.

“The government must see renter rights as a priority and get this Bill into law as a matter of the highest priority.”

The mayor is also putting another £30,000 into the Better Renting programme to train housing officers tackle common problems in the PRS including mould and damp, harassment by landlords and threats of illegal eviction.