On a visit to Croydon, the former housing secretary describes companies run by a billionaire Labour Party donor as ‘disgusting and disgraceful’, as hundreds of their tenants are served Section 21 eviction orders
The red coats are coming: MP Angela Rayne and Labour mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis (right) at Delta Point yesterday.
Angela Rayner, tipped as the next leader of the Labour Party, was in Croydon yesterday to raise further complaints against multi-billionaire landlord Asif Aziz and his various Criterion companies over mass evictions of tenants across his south London property portfolio – including massive blocks of flats in former office buildings, such as Delta Point.
Aziz has been described by The Times as “Britain’s meanest landlord”. Yesterday Rayner, the former housing secretary, described his landlord companies as “disgusting and disgraceful”.
Located near West Croydon Station, Delta Point is a 14-storey former BT office building which was used as a location for Gotham City Hospital in the 2012 Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. Aziz’s companies acquired the block for conversion into more than 350 flats, the properties marketed for rent under Criterion Hospitality’s “Dstrkt” brand.
South London MPs, including Croydon West’s Sarah Jones, Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan and London’s deputy mayor for housing, Tom Copley, have all lobbied Aziz over the evictions, which are being conducted using Section 21 “no fault eviction” rules, just weeks before the practice is to be outlawed by the Labour government.
Mayor Sir Sadiq and Aziz have been regarded in the past as friends, and Aziz is a donor to the Labour Party.
But all approaches to stop the evictions have either been ignored, or journalists reporting on the activities of Aziz and Criterion have received threatening letters from the notorious libel lawyers, Carter Fuck.
Marching orders: Asif Aziz, has been called ‘Britain’s meanest landlord’
Hundreds of tenants in Croydon – including around 200 in Delta Point alone – have been given their marching orders by their landlord, all quite legally under the law as it stands. They have been left to find alternative accommodation, or add their names to the council’s waiting list.
It has been suggested that Criterion has cleared its flats so that they can then be leased to local authorities, such as Croydon, to be used as temporary accommodation – generating increased revenue for the landlord, all subsidised by the tax-payer.
In a statement issued to Inside Croydon, a Criterion spokesperson confirmed evictions had been taking place, describing this as, “a standard asset management process to regularise occupation terms” Which is nice.
They denied the S21 dodge, saying there had been no “attempt to accelerate action ahead of legislative reform”. Which somewhat suggests that making hundreds of people homeless at short notice is standard practice for Criterion.
Inside Croydon understands that some Croydon Council temporary accommodation tenants are already housed in Delta Point, where commercial lettings average around £1,500 per month for a one-bedroom flat.
Rayner was the architect of Labour’s housing policy, including the Renters’ Rights Act which becomes law later this year. Last year she was forced to resign from government over an as-yet unresolved tax investigation.
On her flying visit to Croydon, she said, “People need to feel that somebody is on their side and standing up for them. That’s why I’ve come down today: to say that landlord’s behaviour is completely unacceptable.
“People are too frightened even to raise legitimate concerns around safety and standards because they think they’ll get evicted.”
And referring to Labour Party donor Aziz, Rayner said, “I say to that billionaire, would you want your family to be treated like that? I bet you’d lawyer up. And I bet you’d do everything in your power to protect your loved ones…
“These people do not have the resources to be able to do that, and that’s why the state should be there for them.”
Rayner described Criterion as “disgusting and disgraceful” and said they should not be landlords due to the “incredibly vindictive” way they treat their tenants.
Rayner arrived for a photoshoot outside Delta Point with Labour’s local mayoral candidate Rownenna Davis, with both wearing eye-catching scarlet coats. They also attended a consttuency surgery held by MP Jones at a secret location somewhere in the Whitgift Centre.
“There’s a lady in there crying in front of a young child, worried about what’s going to happen to her future,” Rayner said. “Somebody on a spreadsheet has decided ‘we don’t want you anymore’. This is their home.”
Dealing with the consequences: Rayner at MP Sarah Jones’s housing clinic held yesterday
And Rayner welcomed wider press coverage of the mass evictions. “I don’t care that this landlord’s nose is being put out. I hope he sees the work being done to highlight this case. You should shine a light on it and let people make their own minds up on whether it’s acceptable to do what they’ve done to these people.”
Today, Davis told Inside Croydon: “Billionaire landlords should not be able to evict responsible tenants at a moment’s notice, purely to increase their own profits.
“I’m glad Angela came to Croydon to call on this landlord to change his mind. And I’m proud that Sarah Jones MP and council candidates were able to help with legal advice surgeries to help residents.
“If I become Mayor, I will extend and strengthen the landlord licensing scheme. If slum landlords can’t improve, we will fight them. We are talking about people’s homes, not just assets on a balance sheet.”
The Labour Party has failed to respond to Inside Croydon’s questions over whether it intends to return Aziz’s £50,000 donation.
Meanwhile, Criterion Capital, in a statement, said this, apparently seriously: “Claims that ‘hundreds’ of tenants are being evicted, or that this represents a ‘mass eviction’ across London, are factually incorrect.” Except that they are not.
“The suggestion that tenants are being ‘made homeless’ demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of both the law and the complex social issues that give rise to genuine homelessness.” Really? To most reasonable people, when a family is evicted without alternative accommodation arranged, that is the very definition of being made homeless.
But Criterion says: “The routine conclusion of a private-sector periodic tenancy, in accordance with statutory notice provisions, is not synonymous with homelessness. These are market-rent tenancies and residents retain access to alternative accommodation within the private rental sector.”
Or as Angela Rayner said, “disgusting and disgraceful”.
Read more: Property billionaire in £30m swoop for Apollo and Lunar House
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Rachman lives on!
A lot of former office buildings in Croydon have been converted to residential already and probably more to come to flood an already saturated market for flats in the area. The quality of the conversions vary considerably, and at the extremes, Leon House seems to enjoy a good reputation, but Delta Point is right at the bottom end with far too many tiny “rabbit-hutches” crammed into that building.
The market is only ‘saturated’ if you are not fussy or are desperate, and are willing to live in a matchbox in a high rise block in the centre of the town and pay an exhorbitant rent. Having a home is a fundamental human need and we need drastic action to provide affordable, decent housing for everybody, not overpriced, poorly built rabbit hutches with greedy landlords!
I was a victim of the infamous Section 21 eviction last year, but a different landlord, I can tell you that it is not a pleasant experience, to put it mildly! Luckily I found a new place to rent before the 2 month deadline, but it was touch and go! My heart goes out to these poor tenants and something needs to be done urgently to stop these greedy landlords! I have little faith in Labour to stop this problem, many Labour MPs are landlords themselves. Rayner is full of hot air and I’m betting little or nothing will be done, but they did get rid of Section 21 notices, but an awful lot more needs to be done!
“The Labour Party has failed to respond to Inside Croydon’s questions over whether it intends to return Aziz’s £50,000 donation.”
Funny that!! They say what they want people to hear, and do the opposite behind closed doors. They’re just as bad.
You reported in December that Criterion Capital had acquired Lunar House and Apollo House. At the time I anticipated that they would sit on the buildings as a land bank given that every other development company seems to have decided that it is not the right climate in London to develop housing for sale or rent. Given that they have started stripping out Lunar House, it may be that Criterion have decided to convert them into units suitable for letting as short term housing to other local authorities in London and the Home Office. (Note to editor – You may want to run a story following up on the article published in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that according to their analysis of Land Registry data, 36.8% of homes built post-2007, bought after 2010 and sold from 2020 onwards sold at a loss. It seems odd that the owners of the Whitgift Centre seem to remain bullish about the redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre for flats.)
All local authorities should be blacklisting rogue landlords like this. Not a single penny of taxpayers money should be ending up in their pockets.
Angela Rayners, the obvious choice to advise on property and tax matters, free concert tickets and government taxi services included.