A plan to tackle Oxford’s lawbreaking letting agents was set in motion last summer, but how far has it come since then?
At a meeting of the Oxford City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Panel last night a review of the actions taken since a motion to tackle discrimination within housing was passed on July 26, 2021.
The aim was to stamp out discrimination against tenants who receive housing benefits or Universal credit, which was made illegal in 2020 but landlords and letting agents continued to advertise ‘No DSS’ policies.
DDS refers to the Department of Social Security, which describes tenants who would be paying their rent using government support.
Since the cross-party motion was voted for by the whole council, the actions that have been put in place in brief are:
- Making it clear that landlords and letting agents who are on their accreditation scheme will be sanctioned for discriminating against tenants
- Being more vigilant of this type of discriminant, so making sure the welfare reform team are looking for and acting on this discrimination
- Giving training and guidance to duty housing officers
- Setting up a tenant’s forum where this can be discussed
- Providing awareness through media
So far, there have been no complaints about landlords or letting agents on the accreditation scheme, no discrimination identified by the welfare team, training and guidance has been given to relevant staff, and a tenants’ forum should be established within the month according to the City Council.
The City Council’s initiative was commended by homeless charity Shelter and other councils across the UK last summer for being the first to take direct action on this issue.
It's great to see @OxfordCity leading the way for councils with a cross-party motion to ban 'No DSS' adverts. #EndDSSDiscrimination
— Shelter (@Shelter) August 2, 2021
Despite DSS discrimination being ruled unlawful in 2020, some landlords and letting agents are still discriminating.https://t.co/wLa5kGN1dq
The cross-party motion was proposed by Holywell Labour councillor and housing campaigner Imogen Thomas, and seconded by the leader of the Green group on the city council Chris Jarvis.
The unanimous vote on the motion followed a major rally organised by community union ACORN against a number of local letting agents last summer.
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