Right to Rent 'yet to demonstrate its worth'

The scathing report announced that: “the Right to Rent (RtR) scheme had yet to demonstrate its worth as a tool to encourage immigration compliance, with the Home Office failing to coordinate, maximise or even measure effectively its use, while at the same time doing little to address the concerns of stakeholders”.

The report highlights concerns and criticisms raised by the NLA and stakeholder groups publically and through the Landlords Consultative Panel chaired by the Immigration Minister.

Mr Bolt directs four recommendations at the Home Office:

• Produce a SMART Action Plan to ensure that all areas of the Home Office that need to understand fully and engage with Right to Rent measures in order for them to work as effectively and efficiently as possible are briefed, trained, supported, and have appropriate performance measures/targets in place, backed up by quality assurance checks.
• Engage with other central government departments and agencies, and with Local Authorities, the police and other local agencies, to produce a multi-level England-wide strategy for the deployment of Right to Rent measures, including specific multi-agency actions such as Operation Lari.
• Recognise that the success of Right to Rent measures relies on private citizens more than public authorities by creating a new ‘Right to Rent Consultative Panel’, inviting Landlords Consultative Panel (LCP) members and stakeholders concerned with the rights and interests of migrants who were not previously LCP members to join. The remit of the new Panel should include raising and agreeing how to tackle issues and concerns about the working of the Right to Rent measures. Minutes of meetings and outcomes should be published on GOV.UK.
• With the new Consultative Panel, develop and make public plans for the monitoring and evaluation of the Right to Rent measures, including (but not limited to) the impact of the measures (where appropriate alongside other “compliant environment measures”) on “illegal migrants”, on landlords, and on racial and other discrimination, exploitation and associated criminal activity, and homelessness.