11,100 tenants evicted in England, Wales

Rising property prices are taking their toll on tenants with the number of those forced out from their homes in England and Wales hitting record highs.

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice indicate that 11,100 properties were repossessed by bailiffs between July and September this year.

That is the highest quarterly figure since records began in 2000.

Meanwhile, the homelessness charity Shelter has warned that that over 1300 people or 560 households in England are put at risk from eviction or repossession.

The recent findings have already given rise to the threat of homelessness among some British families.

Meanwhile, housing charities are calling for more protection for renters as thousand of tenants struggle legal cases to avoid eviction.

A London-based journalist believes the housing crisis in the UK is mainly because the construction projects have mainly been left with the private sector.

“The main reason behind the housing crisis in UK is that the project of housing by large has been left with the private sector through the market and the consequence of that is the houses that have been built by private contractors are unaffordable for the vast majority of the people in Britain. It’s almost impossible now for the British citizens to obtain a mortgage unless they are very well-off. Therefore people are forced to rely on either getting themselves extremely into debt in desperate effort to buy a house and falling into the trouble that you can’t repay it which is what happened in majority of cases of repossessions or you have to go to the private sector to rent at very high rates and the problem is particularly happening in London Southeast,” Chris Bambery told Press TV on Wednesday.
He also blamed the government spending cuts for the deterioration of the housing crisis in the country.

“Money which is given to people to help for the rent has been cut back consistently and there is a real problem of not just people being unable to afford housing bills but also the overcrowding of the people in order to survive, covering together, families are closing in together in order to live together to reduce costs. Overcrowding is a big problem particularly in London and that has impact on children, space to read, to play to do their homework; they are forced to share a bedroom with all the children and even adults which is inappropriate, so yes, there is a real problem here and benefit cuts are affecting it very badly indeed.”