22/10/2018
Shelter’s Head of Research misled public on TV about .
Hilary Burkitt, the Head of Research at Shelter, spoke about the PRS on the BBC’s Politics Live programme on 11/10/2018, about 22 minutes from the start.
She said “people don’t have the stability at the moment, they can be chucked out by their landlords at a moment’s notice”.
That is untrue. Shelter’s own website says the opposite: “Only court bailiffs can evict you from your home”! As experts in , can confirm the law and practice is in line with Shelter's position on their website, and far from Hilary Burkitt's comment on the TV programme.
What she described would be a criminal offence, as Shelter’s website explains.
It is not surprising that tenants feel insecure when they hear deliberately misleading information like this from someone apparently knowledgeable.
Burkitt also said “We know now that losing a tenancy in the private rented sector is the leading cause of people becoming homeless in this country”. Shelter’s website says this is also untrue.
Firstly, it explains that the termination of a tenancy is not the cause of homelessness. The cause is whatever triggered the eviction.
Secondly, since June 2017 it has been showing the real reason: “The inability to find a new place to live once a short-term tenancy ends is a leading cause of homelessness in Great Britain. New research by Shelter identifies a number of reasons why people on low incomes are increasingly unable to find a home and secure a tenancy in the private rented sector.”
You would expect the Head of Research to be familiar with the results of this research, wouldn’t you?
Shelter has a rule on its website about: “never deliberately misleading or confusing a member of the public” click here
Unfortunately this only applies to face-to-face fundraisers. Shelter’s managers seem to have carte blanche on television programmes to spout propaganda which is given the lie by Shelter’s own body of knowledge and research.
“Does the truth not matter to Shelter?”
“Shelter CEO is also confused about no-fault evictions”
Credit:
Additional information from Property118's website on 15/10/2018