We in the Labour Party are calling for the Government to introduce an immediate ban on evictions to protect renters and stop people from entering homelessness this winter as we face into a bleak winter ahead. We are seeing with alarming frequency distressing stories of families literally left out in the cold. We have seen just this week reports of a family sleeping in a tent in Herbert Park in our own constituency. We in the Labour Party have called on the Government to grasp the nettle on housing. We simply have not seen sufficiently urgent action. We did welcome the endowing of local authorities with powers to allow them to buy rental properties and to keep renters in a home when the landlord chooses to sell, but whenever families contact me who are facing eviction, I have yet to see that policy having positive effect for them. We need to see more radical and urgent action taken by the Government, and we need to see a temporary but immediate ban on evictions to protect renters and protect families facing eviction this winter.

We have to address this issue and particularly the related issue of homelessness. There are a number of measures that the Government is looking at. Change is planned on the advertising of property in short-let Airbnb-type facilities in terms of restrictions to make sure those types of properties come back into the rented sector. There are changes to the rules so people are now entitled to three months notice rather than the previous 28 days, even in short lets, to avoid someone being evicted through that short-term method. There are changes in the law so local authorities through their financing mechanisms are able to purchase properties which landlords are threatening to sell in order to prevent eviction. Those three specific examples of measures the Government is taking are ways in which we can reduce this huge problem.