A Labour MP has tabled an Early Day Motion condemning the Government’s decision to make landlords and agents carry out immigration status checks on prospective tenants.
The requirement is being trialled from Monday in parts of the midlands.
Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, says it will lead to new fees being charged by agents.
The full text of his early day motion is:
“That this House notes the introduction on 1 December 2014 of the pilot scheme of the requirement for private sector landlords to conduct immigration checks on their tenants; believes that this will lead to new fees from letting agents to all of Britain’s nine million private tenants on moving to conduct these checks; considers that almost no undocumented migrants will be caught, as they will move into illegal tenancies, and in so doing will create a new market for illegal and exploitative landlords; further notes that this requirement will encourage discrimination in the lettings process; and further believes that it is morally objectionable to remove from any person access to shelter, just as it would be to remove access to water or to emergency medical care.”
Comments (3)
The easiest solution would be for a National Insurance Number to be issued ONLY to legal immigrants. There could then be an online verification where the NINO is entered and the legal person's name is displayed. Of course that would mean that the Government would take the blame for errors and we cannot have that, can we?
Has anyone actually ploughed through the Govt guidelines on this nonsense? I did the other day: wet towel-over-head job. And we're not getting paid for doing what the Border Agency has failed to do 🙁
Hear hear! It's just one thing after another on our industry, and hardly any of it is properly thought out.