Homelessness minister must resign over rent hike after tenants’ exit, Tories say

Labour’s homelessness minister is facing calls to resign after reports claimed she hiked rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds just weeks after the previous tenants’ contract ended.

Four tenants who rented a house in east London from Rushanara Ali were sent an email last November saying their lease would not be renewed, which also gave them four months’ notice to leave, the i Paper reported.

Ali’s property was then re-listed with a £700 rent increase within weeks, the newspaper said.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chairman, called for the minister to stand down, accusing her of “staggering hypocrisy” over her handling of the rental property.

A spokesperson for the minister said: “Rushanara takes her responsibilities seriously and complied with all relevant legal requirements.”

The house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and it was only re-listed as a rental because it had not sold, according to the i Paper.

Tory frontbencher Hollinrake said: “I think it shows staggering hypocrisy. Rushanara Ali has been somebody who’s obviously a Government minister in charge of homelessness.

“She’s spoken out about exploiting tenants, about providing more protections to tenants.

“You can’t say those things, then do the opposite in practice, as a landlord. She’s got to resign.”

He said the conduct appeared to be “unethical, not illegal” but “we can’t just say one thing and do another”.

Speaking to the i Paper, Ali’s former tenant Laura Jackson said she was one of four tenants who received an email giving four months notice to leave the property, for which they collectively paid £3,300 in rent.

Ms Jackson, a self-employed restaurant owner, said she saw the house re-listed weeks after she and her fellow tenants had left, but with a rent of around £4,000.

The 33-year-old told the i Paper: “It’s an absolute joke. Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion.”

She also said two letting companies managing the property for Ali had attempted to charge £395 in cleaning fees and £2,000 to repaint the house when they left.

The tenants successfully challenged this, as landlords are prohibited from charging tenants for professional cleaning, and from repainting costs unless serious damage has occurred.

A Labour voter, Ms Jackson suggested it was a “conflict of interest” for MPs to be landlords, especially in their own constituencies.

Ms Jackson declined to comment further when approached by the PA news agency but confirmed the details of the i Paper’s story.

The minister’s actions have also faced scrutiny from rental rights campaigners, as the Government seeks to clamp down on what it sees as unfair rental practices.

The Renters’ Rights Bill includes measures to ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months.

The Bill, which is nearing its end stages of scrutiny in Parliament, will also abolish fixed-term tenancies and ensure landlords give four months’ notice if they want to sell their property.

Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, described the allegations as “shocking and a wake-up call to Government on the need to push ahead as quickly as possible to improve protections for renters”.

He added: “It is bad enough when any landlord turfs out their tenant to hike up the rent, or tries their luck with unfair claims on the deposit, but the minister responsible for homelessness knows only too well about the harm caused by this behaviour.

“These allegations highlight common practices that the Government can eradicate.

“The Renters’ Rights Bill would ban landlords who evict tenants to sell the property from re-letting it within 12 months, to deter this kind of abuse – but unfortunately members of the House of Lords have voted to reduce this to six months.

“The Government can also use its review of the deposit protection system to penalise landlords who make exaggerated claims at the end of the tenancy.”

Tom Darling, director at the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “It’s mind-boggling that we have a homelessness minister who has just evicted four people in order to rake in more rent – something that will soon be illegal under the Renters’ Rights Bill her own department is bringing through Parliament.

“The Government are currently considering an amendment to the legislation from the House of Lords which reduces the ban on re-letting after eviction from 12 months to six months.

“The Government must remove this amendment, and at the very least minister Ali must recuse herself from any discussions on this within Government.”

Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at homelessness charity Shelter, said it “beggars belief that after months of dither and delay, the Government’s own homelessness minister has profited from the underhand tactics the Renters’ Rights Bill is meant to outlaw”.

Cabinet ministers lined up to defend Ali when questioned about the allegations.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper, speaking to broadcasters, said: “I don’t know any of the details of this, but I understand that she has followed all of the rules in this case.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she “didn’t understand” why the Conservatives were calling for Ali to resign, as she was interviewed in South Wales, saying: “I don’t know the details but Rushanara Ali seems to have done everything in accordance with the law.”