Minority ethnic renters face barriers to safe homes in Southwark

Research conducted by Generation Rent and Citizens Advice Southwark has found key barriers preventing local people from accessing safe and secure homes, with minority ethnic people especially likely to struggle.

Generation Rent ran a survey with Southwark private renters between 6 April and 24 September 2024. The research received 55 submissions from individuals living in the borough; 63% of respondents identified as having a minority ethnic background.

A number of key issues emerged in the survey, including long lengths of time for local renters to find somewhere safe and affordable to move to, high rates of threats of eviction, disrepair and poor standards, and discrimination, especially towards minority ethnic people.

Top findings

  • Two in five respondents said that it took over two months to find a new home the
    last time that they moved. This rose to over half of minority ethnic renters.
  • Over a quarter of respondents had been forced to move into a home they
    otherwise would have avoided because they were facing an eviction. This figure
    rose to almost 1 in 3 of minority ethnic respondents.
  • Over a quarter of respondents had been threatened with an eviction, with
    over 1 in 10 saying that this had happened more than once.
  • The majority of participants stated that they had found significant problems
    with a home after moving in.
  • Almost 1 in 6 of minority ethnic respondents had experienced discrimination
    from a landlord or letting agent.

Participants often indicated that the lack of affordable options locally made it difficult for them to find safe and secure homes when they needed to move.

One participant said: “[I’m] in a good place for the last three years but it’s still entirely at someone else’s discretion. If we were to leave our current place there’s no way we could continue to live in the area I grew up in as rents have skyrocketed.”

A second meanwhile stated: “Being a private renter is hell; we have just been served a section 21 and there is no affordable housing in the area. I don’t know what to do.”

People from minority ethnic backgrounds and from migrant communities often pointed to examples of discrimination and inequality in the research.

One participant, who identified as Latin American and was born abroad, said: “At the
beginning, when I came [to this country], a woman rented me a room. She made me pay
everything in cash… [When I went to] work [the landlord] took my things out to the street,
and he didn’t return my deposit.”

Finally, a third participant, who identified as ‘any other white background’, explained: “I was one of three individuals living in a two-bed flat, one of us slept in the lounge which had been fitted with a lock and called a bedroom. We were there during a census year, and the landlord reacted angrily upon learning we had truthfully filled out in the census that three people lived there. All the landlord’s personal mail came to the flat, and she often let herself in without any notice or consent.”

What needs to happen?

The Renters’ Rights Bill, currently progressing through Parliament is set to become the most important reform for private renters in a generation.

For the Bill to comprehensively address the issues that tenants face and reach through to all private renters, including ethnic minority communities it must include:

  1. An end to Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions
  2. The introduction of indefinite tenancies and longer notice periods
  3. The introduction of a private landlord register in England which works in cohesion with local
    licensing schemes
  4. An end to economic evictions by restricting unaffordable rent increases
  5. An end to the discriminatory Right to Rent policy

We also need:

  1. Improved benefits support
  2. Increased local authorities’ budgets to support regulatory and enforcement functions
  3. More affordable homes and more social homes

Can you support our campaign to end housing inequality? Sign up here.

Do you have a story to tell? Tell us here.

Read the full report here.

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Individual Advice

Generation Rent can’t offer advice about individual problems. Here are a few organisations that can:

You might also find quick but informal help on ACORN’s Facebook forum, and there are more suggestions on The Renters Guide.