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”.
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