Over 90,000 households in England threatened with eviction since ban on Section 21 promised

New figures released today (Thursday 16th May) show that 92,114 households in England have received a Section 21 or ‘no-fault’ eviction notice since April 2019, when the UK Government first promised to end no-fault evictions.

The figures from the UK Ministry of Justice also show:

• 28,993 households have been evicted by bailiffs since April 2019, when the ban on Section 21 was first announced in Parliament.
• 7,863 households in England were served with a Section 21 or a ‘no-fault’ eviction notice between January and March 2024. This is an 15% increase year-on-year.
• There has been a 19% increase in households being evicted by bailiffs in the same period, with 2,682 carried out in between January and March this year.

The UK Government committed to ending Section 21 evictions in England in 2019, but the legislation intended to achieve it – the Renters Reform Bill – is still progressing through the UK Parliament. Ministers recently amended the legislation to mean that Section 21 evictions will only be ended once a review has been completed of the readiness of the courts to hear housing cases. This could lead to no-fault evictions continuing indefinitely – putting thousands more people at risk of homelessness.

Francesca Albanese, Executive Director of Policy and Social Change at Crisis, said: "Once again, tenants are facing unimaginable stress and uncertainty. More than 90,000 households in England have been threatened with eviction since the UK Government first promised to end no-fault evictions back in 2019 and yet nearly five years on the situation for renters is no better.

“Although we welcome the UK Government's efforts via the Renters Reform Bill to support households after eviction, Section 21 notices still remain the leading cause of homelessness in England. The Government must give renters the protections they need to ensure that more and more people aren’t faced with the uncertainty of eviction and pushed into homelessness.”

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors 

• Data from the Ministry of Justice available here.
• Q2 2019 used as the benchmark for when the ban on Section 21 evictions was first mentioned in Parliament in April 2019. We have looked at the totals from all quarters since then for this analysis which shows that 92,114 people in England received a Section 21 or ‘no-fault’ eviction notice since Q2 2019.