One of Britain's best-known landlords has issued eviction notices to every tenant who is on welfare, and told letting agents that he will not accept any more applicants who need housing benefit.

Fergus Wilson, who with his wife Judith owns nearly 1,000 properties around the Ashford area of Kent, has sent the eviction notices to 200 tenants, saying he prefers eastern European migrants who default much less frequently than single mums on welfare. He says the move is purely an economic decision and points out that private landlords are running a business.

"Rents have gone north, and benefit levels south," he said. "The gap is such that I have taken the decision to withdraw from taking tenants on housing benefit. From what I can gather just about all other landlords have done the same. Our situation is that not one of our working tenants is in arrears – all those in arrears are on housing benefit."

A key factor for Wilson and other landlords is that it is impossible to obtain rent guarantee insurance for a tenant on housing benefit. This type of insurance is sold to landlords and is designed to cover the rent if the tenant stops paying for any reason.

Another issue Wilson raises is the number of tenancy applications landlords receive for each property.

"Tenants on benefits are competing with eastern Europeans who came to the UK in 2005 and have built up a good enough credit record to rent privately. We've found them to be a good category of tenant who don't default on the rent. With tenants on benefits the number of defaulters outnumbers the ones who pay on time," he said.

"Single mothers on benefits have been displaced to the bottom of the pile; sympathy for this group is disappearing. There aren't enough places for people to live."

Dan Wilson Craw, a spokesman for campaign group Priced Out, says he is dismayed to hear Wilson's announcement: "Evicting tenants because you're suddenly upset about new government policies is unbelievably heartless, and could lead to more people deciding not to claim benefit for fear of losing their home, and sinking further into poverty," he said, "This is just one symptom of a wider housing market that is simply not working in the consumer's interests. The instability and poor conditions that private tenants have to deal with would not be tolerated in any other market."

Wilson's decision comes after figures from the National Landlords' Association published in December, which showed that the number of private landlords letting to people on benefits has halved to just one in five.

Problems for tenants on benefits seem likely to get worse when universal credit is introduced. Under the scheme, six means-tested benefits, including housing benefit, will be combined into one monthly payment. Tenants on benefits will need to budget and pay the rent to their landlord themselves.

Universal credit started to be introduced in April 2013 and it is predicted that all claimants will be moved to the scheme by 2017.

The Wilsons shot to prominence in 2006 when it was revealed that they had built up Britain's biggest buy-to-let empire, sometimes snapping up a property every day in the early part of the decade.

Wilson is not the first large-scale landlord to raise concerns about low-income tenants. Last month Kevin Green, a landlord with more than 700 properties in Wales, said he may stop letting to people on welfare.

This is the one thing that is worrying me about moving....I'm at the bottom of that pile (single mum).
I have always rented privately, and as a consequence I have always had to pay the 'bedroom tax'. I've never fallen foul of a landlord for rent arrears....but by the mere fact private landlords up and down the country are doing this will make my move all the more difficult.

angelchemuel wrote: I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that a massive shitstorm is brewing sooner or later. If you take, for example, the economy of London, I cannot see how it can be remotely sustainable.

There's so much to this story. I reckon if we disected it methodically we could shed light on an awful lot of really bad aspects of the corruption inherent in our system.

knobmeup wrote:


At the root of the problem is the fact that every other creature on earth is allowed to create it's own nest or dwelling without hindrance but humans are not.



The making of profit from a basic need,which should be a legal right is amoral.



Why don't schools teach you how to build a house LOL it's basic.

Why don't schools teach you how to build a house LOL it's basic.

humanspirit wrote:


School does not teach you to work for yourself: it teaches you to work for others.

humanspirit wrote:

We let animals off, if we go find some empty land and build on it, we get arrested for trespass because the empty land 'belongs' to some rich cunt

Refusing to pay council tax isn't that straight forward. I've related the tale here before of my cancelling the DD mandate until such time as they supplied me with info as to how much of it was earmarked for CP training costs.

They didn't respond to me at all, and with no warning or court process that we were notified of or anything, just went directly to my husband's then employers for an attachment of earnings.

Gilly wrote:
I know it...it was one of those rhetorical doozies. It would have to be something that every single person in the country went along with, as ever, for it to ever have an impact.