Stratford district sees 'significant increase' in homelessness caused by no-fault evictions

There has been a “significant increase” in homelessness caused by no-fault evictions from private tenancies in the Stratford district.

Cllr Jo Barker (Con, Shipston South), the district council’s portfolio holder for homes, health and wellbeing, acknowledged the increasing problem when answering questions on the private housing sector this week.

“Increasingly tight constraints” for landlords and the end of Covid-related eviction bans were cited but answers were not as clear on measures to address the matter.

The leader of the district's opposition Cllr Susan Juned (Lib Dem, Alcester Town) highlighted reports from the BBC that private rent costs had increased by 6.2 per cent in the Stratford district over the past year with other reports of landlords opting to sell their properties, increasing the number of no-fault evictions.

She requested information on how this affected the district council – the public body responsible for housing in the area – and which areas are seeing the biggest impacts.

Cllr Barker responded: "We have seen a rise in claims of homelessness from private tenancies during 2022 and this is likely to be due to the protection tenants had during the pandemic ending in October 2021.

“There have been 89 recorded cases since the beginning of 2022, 73 in 2022 and 16 cases in quarter one of (January to March) 2023, where the landlord indicated they were selling the property.

“This is likely to be because of the increasingly tight constraints on the operation of the private rented sector and appears to be a significant increase on previous years, although the Covid-related tenancy protections may be an influencing factor.

“Stratford-on-Avon District Council is experiencing a wider increase in homelessness presentations and this is a trend being experienced more widely across both the region and England.”

Data showed that a little over half of the 89 cases came from CV37 – Stratford – postcodes but Cllr Barker added that “further analysis would be needed to establish whether there was a statistically significant geographical bias evident in the data”.

She also said that there are currently on families in emergency bed and breakfast accommodation “due to the council’s excellent development work and high levels of homelessness prevention”.

Cllr Juned followed up by asking: “What work is currently happening with housing associations to find appropriate alternative accommodation?”

Cllr Barker replied: “The only thing I can say really is yes, we will carry on doing that, because that is an ongoing issue as these numbers increase.”