Landlords not suitable to check immigration status - CIEH
CIEH
| Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Commenting on the announcement from the Government that private landlords will be expected to play a greater role in checking the immigration status of their tenants, Bob Mayho, Principal Policy Officer for the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), said:
“We have fundamental reservations about the Government’s new proposals and question why landlords are being asked do the job of the UK Border Agency in checking the immigration status of their tenants.
“These proposals raise serious questions about the housing options of legal migrants and the knock-on impacts for hard-pressed local authorities. Migrants are disproportionately dependent on the private rented sector and are already more likely to be exploited by disreputable landlords, many of which are unknown to local authorities.
“Furthermore, the proposals rely on a high degree of self-enforcement by landlords themselves and on ‘whistle blowing’. Landlords already have to comply with various requirements when they make a letting but many of these are poorly enforced because of the resource constraints on local authorities, alongside the rapid growth of the private rented sector.”
