Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of potential racial disparities in eviction cases brought by private landlords against Black British people.

It is unlawful for a landlord to seek to end a tenancy based on an individual’s ethnicity, or any other protected characteristic.

As private landlords are not required to record when they serve a notice of possession, it is not possible to break down the volume of notices served by ethnicity. Upon the expiry of a possession notice, a landlord can make a claim for possession in the county court if the tenant does not vacate the property. Landlords are not required to record the ethnicity of the tenant(s) against whom they are making a claim.