A Labour-run council is using a legal loophole to issue dozens of families with no-fault evictions, despite Keir Starmer’s manifesto pledge to outlaw the practice.
Scrapping no-fault evictions “immediately” was one of Labour’s main manifesto pledges before its 2024 election win, but more than a year on, the party’s flagship renters’ rights bill has not been made law.
Local authorities cannot normally carry out no-fault evictions – known officially as section 21 evictions – as they apply to tenancies issued by private landlords.
However, Lambeth council in south London has been able to start eviction proceedings against 63 households because it created an arm’s-length body to manage some of its housing stock.
Five families have already been issued with possession orders via the courts and two of those have had their homes repossessed by bailiffs. Another 24 have left properties voluntarily after receiving a section 21 notice.
Internal council documents seen by the Guardian suggest that council officials have been planning to regain possession of the properties since at least 2023, but the full implementation of the scheme was delayed until after last year’s election.
An internal briefing document from March 2024 read: “Advice received from democratic and legal services [is] that this is a key decision and it is too controversial to take during the pre-election period.”
Plans to evict the tenants were made despite the fact Lambeth council wrote to the Conservative government in 2019, asking it to end no-fault evictions.
The tenancies were overseen by Homes for Lambeth, a group of companies wholly owned by the council. It was established in 2017 as part of an estate regeneration scheme. As part of this initiative, the local authority bought back some properties from residents who had purchased former council houses at a discount as part of the right-to-buy scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1980.
The council then transferred these properties to Homes for Lambeth. This meant they were able to be rented on the private market, despite ultimately being owned by the local authority. At its peak, Homes for Lambeth managed about 200 properties across six estates.
However, Homes for Lambeth is now being disbanded due to concerns over poor performance after an independent review by former senior civil servant Bob Kerslake in 2022. Kerslake recommended that management of the Homes for Lambeth stock be brought back “in house” to improve efficiency.
About 100 of the homes were vacated voluntarily before eviction notices were issued. The council is now using legal measures in an attempt to regain possession of the remaining properties. In internal documents, it said this would help it meet the “most urgent” housing needs in the borough, including accommodating vulnerable families who needed temporary housing after being made homeless.
Some residents tried to challenge the decision in court, but in June a judge ruled that current laws do not prevent councils from setting up companies to issue private tenancies.
Jules Zakolska, 27, who received a section 21 notice in April, has been at the forefront of efforts to fight the decision on behalf of the affected residents. She said some have been driven to the brink of suicide by the stress. Zakolska said she and her partner, July Kaliszewska, 24, had also suffered severe mental health issues as they faced the prospect of their home being repossessed by bailiffs.
Zakolska, a university social sciences student, has lived in the property in Clapham with Kaliszewska, a bar manager, for three years. She is autistic and suffers from fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes pain and fatigue. She says she is “traumatised” by the prospect of ending up in temporary accommodation.
She said: “Lambeth just doesn’t care. It says it wants to provide housing for the most vulnerable people, but if it makes us homeless, we will become those people. They have created this issue and traumatised us. It’s not right. I’m struggling. Who wouldn’t be, with the prospect of becoming homeless? It’s taken over my life.”
A Lambeth council spokesperson said: “With almost 5,000 vulnerable homeless Lambeth families staying in often poor-quality temporary accommodation every night, there are incredibly difficult choices to be made. To do nothing would ignore their plight.
“When the opportunity arose we chose, legally, to use properties we own to house the homeless rather than rent them out privately on a short-term basis.
“The majority of these homes have been returned to the council. We have supported tenants who needed help through this process, while successfully giving dozens of homeless families a roof over their heads.
“This situation is just one example of what long-term structural underfunding of council services, the national failure to build the homes we need, and the ongoing housing crisis looks like on the frontline.
“The high cost of housing in Lambeth and across inner city London is a huge driver of deprivation – a point we are working hard to communicate to government.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We need to do everything we can to support people out of homelessness and we are open to new approaches on this.
“We are spending £1bn on homelessness and building 1.5m homes, so we can tackle the housing crisis we inherited and help councils like Lambeth manage housing need in their areas.”
