This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
A senior Liberal Democrat peer has accused the Government of hypocrisy over the Right To Rent scheme.
Baroness Hamwee has slammed the notion of landlords or letting agents being jailed for housing an illegal immigrant. She believes that the potential presence of an illegal migrant is due to, ‘the government’s failure,’ in protecting Britain’s borders.
‘Immigration Officers’
Writing on the Politics Home website, the Baroness said that Right to Rent, ‘turns landlords and agents into immigration officers.’
Continuing, she criticises the Government for allowing the scheme to roll out nationally, while the pilot scheme in the West Midlands was still continuing. ‘It could hardly be said that the pilot was of adequate size, or a representative sample and that the scheme does not make discrimination all too easy,’ she noted.[1]
‘The great majority of landlords, owning one or two properties, are amateurs who let out a property to supplement pensions or top up salaries. It is these landlords who are likely to be caught out,’ Hamwee added.[1]
Right To Rent scheme slammed by peers
Discrimination
However, Baroness Hamwee believes it is not only migrants that could be discriminated against through this legislation. She feels that, ‘the 12 million Britons who do not have a passport will find it difficult to prove their right to live in their own country, like all the non-British residents who have a legitimate right to be here but whose documentation is not easily identified.’[1]
‘It is likely that the extra administration costs (created by a government keen on deregulation) will be passed on to tenants. The government’s own estimates indicate that this will amount to an extra cost to tenants of £17.9m over 10 years,’ Hamwee concluded.[1]
[1] https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/2/right-to-rent-peer-accuses-government-of-hypocrisy-over-migrant-checks
