Almost a million private renters at risk of eviction this winter, poll finds

Almost a million private renters are at risk of being kicked out of their homes this winter, according to a new poll.

Rising rents and the pressures of the cost of living crisis have left people struggling to pay their bills. Meanwhile, landlords are facing rising mortgage rates and are hiking rents to cope.

Housing charity Shelter estimates that one in 12 private renters in England – equivalent to 941,000 people – are under threat of eviction.

Some 504,000 renters have received or been threatened with eviction in the past month, a poll by the charity found. This was up from an estimated 279,000 renters, who were in the same position in 2021.

Meanwhile, 482,000 people were estimated to be behind on their rent, according to the YouGov poll, which surveyed 2,000 private renters in England between 28 October and 10 November.

There has also been a rise in the number of people who say they are struggling to pay their rent. A quarter of private renters surveyed said they were constantly struggling to find money to pay their rent – equivalent to 2.8 million people.

That’s up from 20 per cent of people who said they were struggling in 2021 – equivalent to 2.2 million people.

Dave, 51, is disabled and lives in a one-bed home in Woking with his 16-year-old son. He was served a Section 21 no-fault eviction by his landlord and is worried he will end up homeless as he cannot find another private rental he can afford.

“I burst into tears when I got the section 21,” he said. “The possibility of getting one is always there in the background, but it was still a shock.

“It’s been impossible to find somewhere new. There are so many places advertised, but they’re a couple of hundred pounds more than my housing benefit.”

He continued: “The last time I received a section 21, I ended up sofa surfing for about three months. It’s going to be the same thing again this time I know. I’m in my fifties. I shouldn’t have to go through that. I try to shield my son from it.”

Dave added that he has trouble sleeping because he’s “sick with worry about what will happen to us”.

Shelter’s chief executive, Polly Neate, said that “every day our emergency helpline advisers are taking gut-wrenching calls” from people in need of help.

“From the mum who’s skipping meals to pay the rent to the family terrified they will be spending Christmas in a grotty homeless hostel,” she added.

Shelter is calling on the government to unfreeze housing benefits to help those who are struggling.

The poll also found 69 per cent of renters said they would struggle to find a suitable home this winter if they were evicted.

Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International’s UK head of advocacy, said that the government’s “broken housing system has not been fit for purpose for decades.”

“It urgently needs to build more social housing and remove the barriers that have been put in place which deny people their right to housing,” he continued.

More than 3,700 families were evicted from privately rented homes in England between July and September, Ministry of Justice statistics show.

That figure rose 10 per cent in just three months and the number of possession claims to courts from landlords has more than doubled in a year.

Kiran Ramchandani, director of policy at homelessness charity Crisis, said that they were hearing more from people at risk of homelessness. “Our centre in South Yorkshire [is] in particular noting an increase in people in the region receiving eviction notices - leaving them facing homelessness in the run up to Christmas,” he said.

“The severe shortage of affordable housing often means that people who have been given an eviction notice have so few options when looking for another home.”

Median monthly rents have also reached a record high – with £795 recorded for England in the first half of 2022. In London, the median rent is £1,450.

Chris Norris, policy director for the National Residential Landlords Association, said that “the vast majority of landlords want to help tenants stay in their homes wherever possible”.

He also called for the government to unfreeze housing benefit rates. “It is simply absurd that support for housing costs is being linked to rents as they were three years ago, not as they are today,” he said.

Mr Norris also called for ministers to “address the supply crisis in the rental market”.