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Shelter hits back at RLA criticisms
Shelter has clarified its position following accusations of discrepancy in press releases it put out regarding tenants who have been victims of abuse at the hands of their landlord.
Last week the charity put out an England-wide press release which said 125,000 tenants in the private rented sector have faced “harassment, threats or assault from their landlord in the last year alone”.
It also put out other press releases, including ones for the North-West and the Midlands, which claimed that approximately 100,000 and 120,000 tenants respectively had experienced “an act by their landlord that could have resulted in legal action”.
Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), wrote to Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb accusing the charity of quoting figures in the releases which did not add up.
In his letter Ward said the RLA “condemns any landlord who engages in such activity and believes that those who are in any way violent or aggressive have no place in the sector”.
However, he added: “Given the serious nature of the issues you raise, it is deeply disappointing that the figures you have produced do not add up.”
Ward goes on: “As an example, whilst noting in your England-wide press release that over 125,000 tenants have been affected, in your release for the North-West you argue that 100,000 tenants are ‘experiencing an act by their landlord that could have resulted in legal action’, whilst in the Midlands the figure is set at 120,000 tenants.
“Given that in these two regions alone the total number of tenants affected exceeds the 125,000 England-wide figure I would be grateful if you could indicate where these numbers have come from.
“Have they come from extrapolating them from the much smaller survey sample taken by YouGov?”
However, Shelter clarified its position yesterday.
A spokeswoman said that although it was unlikely the charity would issue a public response to the personal letter, she reiterated that the statistics referred to in the England-wide release, surrounding harassment threats and assault, were different from the statistics for the regional releases, which surrounded incidents which could have resulted in legal action, such as poor electrics.
She added that the letter had not yet been received by the charity but a personal response would be sent if and when it did receive it.
http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/shelter-hits-back-at-rla-criticisms/
