UK Housing minister hikes rent weeks after removing tenants from own house

Britain’s homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali, reportedly raised the rent on a property she owns in East London by £700 a month, shortly after the previous tenants moved out.

According to the i Paper, four tenants were notified by email last November that their lease would not be renewed. They were given four months’ notice to vacate. The house was then re-listed at the higher rate once they left.

Ali is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping. A spokesperson said: “Rushanara takes her responsibilities seriously and complied with all relevant legal requirements.”

A source close to the minister said the tenants had been on a fixed-term contract and were informed they could remain on a rolling basis while the property was on the market. The tenants, they claimed, chose to leave.

The i Paper was also told that the property was only listed for rent again because it hadn’t sold. The house was originally put on the market in November 2024 for £914,995, but the asking price was reduced by £20,000 in February.

Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “These allegations are shocking and a wake-up call to government on the need to push ahead as quickly as possible to improve protections for renters. It is bad enough when any landlord turfs out their tenant to hike up the rent, or tries their luck with unfair claims on the deposit, but the minister responsible for homelessness knows only too well about the harm caused by this behaviour.”

SNP deputy leader at Westminster, Pete Wishart, said: “Once this shameful story broke, Labour’s homelessness minister should have immediately resigned.”

Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty also urged Ali to step down, saying her position “surely cannot be tenable.”

Asked about the matter, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “I don’t know any of the the details of this but I understand she has followed all the rules in this case.”

Ali’s parliamentary register of interests shows she owns three properties in London, including one co-owned with a family member.

The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill, which is nearing completion in Parliament, will introduce new restrictions. It will prevent landlords from re-listing a property for rent within six months if they’ve ended a tenancy to sell. It will also end fixed-term tenancies and require landlords to give four months’ notice if they want to take back a property to sell.

Most of England’s 4.6 million privately rented homes are let under “assured shorthold tenancies”, either for a fixed term or on a rolling basis. Landlords can currently evict tenants using either Section 8, which requires a reason such as unpaid rent, or Section 21, known as a “no-fault” eviction, which doesn’t require one.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice show there were 7,353 no-fault evictions in the first quarter of 2025, down 6% from the same period the year before.

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