Written By Em

Under the Right to Rent Scheme, landlords are responsible for checking their tenants’ immigration status. This comes with the prospect of prosecution if they suspect or know that the property they are letting out is occupied by an individual who does not have the right to rent in the UK. 

This has created many difficulties for landlords, who are trying to ascertain whether or not their tenants should be in the country, essentially acting as untrained border staff. Now, the scheme will go to the High Court for a judicial review.

The Right to Rent scheme is part of the ‘hostile environment’ strategy for illegal immigrants introduced by the current Prime Minister whilst she was at the Home Office.

 Commenting on the decision for the scheme to go to court, David Smith, Policy Director for the Residential Landlords Association, commented:

“Landlords will welcome the High Court decision to allow a judicial review of the Right to Rent policy which has put them in the impossible position of acting as untrained Border Police trying to ascertain who does and who does not have the right to be in the country. This has created difficulties for many legitimate tenants as landlords are forced to play safe and only rent to those with a UK passport.

“The announcement is an important step towards overturning a policy which the government’s own inspectorate had described as having yet to demonstrate its worth.”

Campaigners have won permission to fight landlords’ immigration checks on prospective tenants

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) advocated for an application by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), which was heard in the High Court yesterday. Both organisations argue that the Right to Rent policy discriminates against foreign nationals, especially those, such as the Windrush generation, who cannot easily prove their right to remain in the UK.

Research collated by the RLA, on State Intervention in the Renting Sector revealed that, as a result of the Right to Rent policy, 42% of landlords are currently less willing to rent to someone who is unable to produce a British Passport. This is due to fear of prosecution for being incorrect. Due to this, the 17% of UK residents who do not have a passport are faced with particular difficulty, and are also the group who are far more likely to be in rented accommodation.

Moreover, the research shows that nearly half of landlords, 49% to be exact, are less likely to rent to someone with limited leave to remain. In addition, 44% of landlords would only rent to those with documents familiar to them, which problematically, is likely to again mean a British passport.

The government faces a challenge to its “hostile environment” policy after a campaign group wins the right to launch a high court case

According to the 2011 Census, “Of the 56.1 million usually resident population of England and Wales in, 76% (42.5 million people) held a UK passport. 7.4% (4.2 million), held only a foreign passport, of which 372,000 were Irish passports. There were 17% (9.5 million) who stated they did not hold a passport.”

Furthermore, earlier this month Oxford University’s Migration Observatory reported that:

“The foreign-born population is almost three times as likely to be in the private rental sector (41% were in this sector in the second quarter of 2017), compared to the UK-born (15%).”