John McDonnell MP

• YOU will be aware that the government has again extended the eviction ban on private and social renter evictions until May 2021.

However government loopholes are allowing evictions to go ahead, such as if the landlord has proven tenants’ anti-social behaviour or at least six months’ rent arrears.

This is despite the housing secretary Robert Jenrick’s promise that “no renter who has lost income due to coronavirus will be forced out of their home”.

This is impacting over 750,000 households throughout England who are in arrears and in a state of constant fear of becoming homeless due to the government’s
short-term approach and shifting regulations in dealing with what is a national housing crisis.

The pandemic has had the greatest impact on the lives of working-class people, including key workers, disabled people, BAME households, and those in precarious employment, who have suffered disproportionately in terms of poor health, poor housing, and extreme hardship.

Even landlords’ groups such as the National Residential Landlords Association are calling on the government to offer greater support to both landlords and tenants.

Numerous renters’ and housing groups are calling for no evictions during the pandemic and for financial support to help renters pay off arrears.

We are therefore calling on Robert Jenrick to implement the following recommendations:

• Extend a full moratorium (ban) on evictions until March 2022.

• Write off arrears accrued during the pandemic until March 2022.

• Central government to develop an emergency financial package for tenants and landlords to stop evictions.

As Shelter points out, “Massive rent debt will make it impossible for many to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the pandemic”.

We call on the prime minister, cabinet and the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, to step in now and support legislation to ensure
no one loses their home or incurs rent debt due to the coronavirus crisis.

SIGNATORIES:

John McDonnell MP
Labour, Hayes & Harlington

Diane Abbott MP
Labour, Hackney North & Stoke Newington

Ken Loach
Film Director, sixteen films

Will McMahon
Director,
Action on Empty Homes

Emma Skinner
Vice Chair, Labour Campaign for Council Housing 
Leicester West CLP Chair

Claire Richards
Member of QBTC Housing Co-op

Thierno Eric Maki Cole
BAME Officer Rainham South & Dagenham Village
Assistant Labour Party Secretary Dagenham Village Ward

Annette Thomas
Islington Pensioners’ UNITE member, and housing co-op member 

David Arnold
Head of Policy
UNISON

Cheryl McLeod
Co-Lead, Organisation Catford Against Social Cleansing

Sally Causer
CEO Southwark Law Centre

Linda Taylor
Hillcrest Residents Association

Harlow And District Trades Council

Andrew Coburn
Secretary, Chelmsford & District Trades Union Council

Ben Clay
Lead Organiser, Greater Manchester Tenants Union

Doug Thorpe
National Secretary, Left Unity

Brian Debus
President Hackney Trades Council, Chair Hackney Unison

Ailis Gavan
Save Gurnell Campaign

Janette Evans
Housing activist, Unite Community, LRU  and Labour Party member 

Louise Kendrick
Housing activist, UCU, Acorn Renters Union,
Private renter facing eviction

Fred Milson
Housing Activist, Lambeth,
People Before Profit

George Smith
Housing Activist, LRU Member,
Tenant facing eviction

Paul Mackinnon
Housing Activist, LRU Member,
Tenant facing eviction

Kim Roper
Housing Association Tenant, Member of LRU Disability Caucus. 

Jason Tetley
Greater Manchester Law Centre

The Steering Group
Greater Manchester Housing Action

Basildon and Thurrock Trades Council

Chelmsford Trades Council

Robin Whiticker
TSSA Union Anglia South General

Tony Phillips
Branch Secretary
UNISON London Fire Brigade

Stacey Evans
LRU Member, Private renter,
Disabled, facing eviction

Jenny Kassman
Islington Homes for All

Dr Debbie Humphry
Research Associate, Oxford Brookes University

Colin Jones
Branch secretary, Hackney Central
Hackney South Labour

Morag Gillie
Co-chair Islington Homes for All and Housing Officer

Liz Davies
Barrister

Claire Wormald,
Branch secretary Southend Local Government
UNISON

Ben Seifert
Haringey LRU member

Dr Melissa Fernández
Arrigoitia Lecturer in Urban Futures
Lancaster University

Professor Paul Watt
Professor of Urban Studies
Birkbeck, University of London

Barry Hetherington
Chair Edward Henry House Co-operative

Dr David Madden
Associate Professor of Sociology
London School of Economics & Political Science

Ilinca Diaconescu
Policy and Campaign Co-ordinator

London Gypsies and Travellers

Nicholas Burton
Grenfell Tower Survivor

Moyra Samuels
Grenfell Community Campaigner

Pamela Smith
Chair National Bargee Travellers Association

Michael Edwards
Hon Professor, Bartlett School of Planning, UCL

Community Plan for Holloway Social Housing Working Group

Tanya Murat,
Southwark Defend Council Housing

Shahram Parvin
Tenant, Unite the Union member

Franklin Thomas
Defend Council Housing

Andrew Pickersgill
Defend Our Community Services, Bracknell Berks

Professor Linda Clarke
ProBE, University of Westminster

Dr Stuart Hodkinson
Associate Professor of Geography
University of Leeds

Tony Gosling
The Land Is Ours, a land rights campaign for Britain, Bristol, UK

Alison Davy
Northumberland Park Decides

Southwark-Lambeth Eviction Resistance

Nicola Saunders
Free Psychotherapy Network

Ben Morris
Joint Secretary Redbridge NEU

Lorraine Douglas
Housing Convenor
Communist Party of Britain

Cllr Sasha Das Gupta
Forest Gate North Labour

John Pye
Secretary, Manchester TUC

Dáire Cumiskey
Housing activist, East London People Before Profit

Gianluca Cavallaro-Ng
Activist, Fuel Poverty Action

Tony Buttifint
Secretary Islington District of the National
Education Union

Cllr Gulcin Ozdemir
Islington Labour Councillor

Cllr Tricia Clarke
Islington Council

Ealing Renters Action

Jane Kendrick
Disabled actor, Housing Activist, previously homeless

Jan Plummer
Chair Essex Unite Community

Eviction Resistance Southend-on-Sea

Chris Hamilton
Teacher, Neu Health and Safety Rep

Dr Michael Szpakowski
Harlow, artist, writer & UCU member

Mick Gilgunn
Chair, on behalf of Islington Trades Union Council

Ken Muller
Press and Publicity Officer, Islington NEU

Emeritus Professor Marjorie Mayo
Goldsmiths, University of London

Truus Jansen
Housing Activist Newham

Radical Housing Network

Dr Andrea Gibbons
Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Salford

Andrea Gilbert
Co Admin

Labour Homeless Campaign

Tower Hamlets Unison Branch

Suzanne Jeffery
Chair of Campaign against Climate Change

Franklin Thomas
Unite member

Karen Reissmann
Vice-chair and on behalf of, Greater Manchester Mental health Unison branch

Cllr Mike Roberts
Opposition Lead Economy and Spatial Planning Rushmoor BC

Matthew Hurry
Branch Treasurer, IWGB Game Workers

Linda Heiden
Unite Community Trade Union activist
& chair & founder of Community TechAid

Celia Cronin
Southwark Pensioners Action Group

Cllr Leah Levane
Hastings Borough Council

Jenny Webley
Tenant in the private sector, Defend Council Housing

Rachel Woolf
Director, Street Storage

Jane Loftus
CWU President

Andy Bain
TSSA ex-president and Islington TUC executive committee

Suzanne Muna
Secretary, The Social Housing Action Campaign

Maddy Winters
Campaigner Fuel Poverty Action

Ruth London
Co-Director Fuel Poverty Action

Charlotte Moore
Women’s Officer & Vice-Chair Highbury West Labour Party

Cllr James McAsh
Labour, Southwark Council

Ellen Clifford
On behalf of DPAC Steering Group Disabled People Against Cuts

Susan Campbell
Retired secondary teacher, social housing tenant, Unite member

Jacky Peacock
Advice for Renters

Dave Owen
Hackney Downs LP

Michael Ellman
Islington North CLP

Jackson Caines
Islington Housing Action

Alexandra Lima Dimitrijevic
Islington Housing Action

Glyn Secker
National Secretary
Jewish Voice for Labour

Alex Mays
Founder & Interim Party Leader Breakthrough Party

Caroline Royds
Transition Highbury

Professor Lynne Segal
Teacher & Writer Psychosocial Studies,
Birkbeck, University of London

Ruth Clarke
Community Activist Finsbury Park

Simon Hinds
Member Islington North Constituency Labour Party

North London Action for the Homeless 

Joannie Andrews
Chair, Victoria Park Residents’ Community Association

Cllr Gary Heather Labour,
Islington Council

Annie Neligan
Green Party

Camden Unison Branch

Claire Dixon
Unison Branch Secretary, Whittington Health Unison NEC member for Health,
Co-Chair, Staff Side