A furious landlord has written an open letter to a senior politician who claimed that landlords cause homelessness.

Teresa Pearce, the shadow housing minister, said in a Westminster Hall debate on affordable housing last week: “One council in my area, Bexley, is often in the position of trying to rent or buy accommodation for homeless families but being outbid by buy-to-let landlords – sometimes the very same ones who caused the homelessness in the first place.”

Dr Rosalind Beck, a portfolio landlord with some 20 years’ experience in the sector, said the statement was “absurd” and that Labour had provided no effective opposition to George Osborne’s attack on the private sector.

Beck has now written this to Pearce:

I was shocked to read of your intervention in the debate on affordable housing, ‘stating’ that landlords cause homelessness. How can you say that people who provide housing cause homelessness?

I can only assume you might mean that when we have rogue tenants – I have had many – and the usual pattern is that they are working, have no change in their employment status, but suddenly stop paying rent for about the 5 months it takes me to get through the court process to the bailiffs stage. I usually lose at least £3,000 every time this happens and endure a lot of stress into the bargain. Are you saying that in these circumstances I have ’caused homelessness’?

You also said that the same landlords who cause homelessness ‘outbid’ others when purchasing. This is simply not true and the evidence is that landlords pay on average 1% less than putative owner-occupiers. If you pay less, how do you ‘outbid’?

I believe it is morally wrong of you to slur landlords in this discriminatory way, and frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself and stop it. You may remember I had cause to write to you a few months back when you suggested landlords should keep our rental homes empty for longer in case rogue tenants who had abandoned them (nearly always with arrears and damage) decided to come back. How does that help the housing situation of this country?

I really think you should be more circumspect before speaking out on these subjects and should gather evidence for your controversial and counter-intuitive statements that only serve to fan the flames of hatred against a professional group and make it so much harder for us to do our jobs. Please try and be more constructive and balanced in the future.”

The letter concludes by asking Pearce for actual evidence that landlords cause homelessness.

Pearce has not as yet responded publicly to the open letter but in private correspondence released by Dr Beck, the shadow housing minister says the “vast majority of landlords” provide a good service.

However, Pearce does go on to maintain in her letter to Beck: “There are instances where landlords can make someone homeless.”

She continues: “… there are occasions where landlords evict tenants who raise concerns about the property. I know this because I am contacted every week by constituents with horror stories of revenge evictions or of impossible rent hikes designed to clear a tenant.”