The Jersey Tenants’ Forum was told yesterday that Housing Minister Russell Labey will meet them next week following a request from the group’s founder Stuart Langhorn in December and a reminder in January. He said tenants should not have had to wait so long for a response. He added: ‘The government is just out of touch with what’s happening on the ground.’
When Jersey entered lockdown in March last year, the government’s ‘Covid Emergency Powers’ granted all of those renting their homes a rent freeze and a guarantee that they would not be evicted.
But in September that was lifted for private renters. Those in social housing retained the guarantee – but the estimated 20,000 in private rented accommodation did not.
Mr Langhorn said: ‘The economy is not going to make an immediate recovery and people’s incomes will also be finely balanced. Private tenants need the same protections that the government has already extended to those in social housing – no evictions and a rent freeze. This will give physical and mental security during this important time.
‘For the 20,000 people in private tenancy in Jersey, eviction and rent rises remain their number one concern.’
Mr Langhorn claimed that since the rental measures were lifted there have been 16 cases where people have faced eviction. He admitted that there are multiple reasons a tenant may face eviction but ‘there are people being evicted through no fault of their own, because they have lost jobs or their businesses have gone’.
The UK currently has an embargo on evictions so Mr Langhorn said that ‘private tenants are not asking for something that is unusual or unwarranted’.
He added: ‘It is unacceptable that an organisation requests a meeting and is still waiting for that meeting nearly three months later. Ministers cannot ignore the public just because they may not like what they have to say.’
In November, former Children’s and Housing Minister Sam Mézec quit the Council of Ministers. Deputy Jeremy Maçon subsequently took on the role, but he has since been appointed as Education Minister, while ministerial portfolios are set to be shuffled to create a new Housing and Communities Minister.
The newly appointed Housing Minister, Russell Labey, is due to meet the Tenants’ Forum next week. He said: ‘I will apologise directly to them for the delay in discussing the emergency legislation with them, due to the recent ministerial reshuffle. While I understand the concerns, the advice I have received in the days following my appointment is that there is no need to reintroduce those emergency measures.
‘Protections from unfair evictions in place before the pandemic are believed to be sufficiently robust.
‘With respect to asking the States Assembly to reintroduce emergency measures, I would need to be convinced of the case, and I will certainly listen to the views of the Jersey Tenants’ Forum.’
