Another senior Labour figure is at the centre of a controversy involving the alleged eviction of private tenants.
Lord Alli – a former investment banker who has donated more than £500,000 to Labour over the past 20 years – allegedly
evicted a young family from his rented north London townhouse before relisting the property for over £1,000 a month more in rent.
This is according to the I paper – the same publication which recently exposed former housing minister Rushanara Ali for executing a similar eviction.
The I claims that in Lord Ali’s case a family of five were told they would have to leave their home of four years when their tenancy expired after being handed a Section 21 eviction notice at the start of the summer.
The newspaper reports that the same house was shortly afterwards reliated for rent at £6,000 pcm. It was shortly afterwards seen to have lowered its rent to £5,850 pcm but this was still well above the £4,800 pcm the evicted family had been paying.
The paper claims new tenants moved in, paying some £5,700 pcm.
This series of events will be outlawed by Labour’s Renters Rights Bill, which is expected to pass into law later this month, before the party’s annual conference.
The I goes on to say: “Alli’s former tenants – a family with young children – told The i Paper that when they saw the property had been relisted, they pleaded with the property’s managing agent to negotiate their rent and offered to meet the increased asking price, but were told no.
“The property was managed on Alli’s behalf by a managing estate agent, who took the decision to serve the eviction notice around two months before the tenancy agreement was due to expire.
“Sources close to Alli said he was not involved in the decision-making on this.
Land Registry records show that Alli has owned the Islington townhouse since the 1990s and does not have a mortgage on the property, which is believed to be worth around £3m.”
A spokesperson for Lord Alli tells the I: “Lord Alli is not a commercial landlord and he doesn’t manage – and has never managed – this property.
“This is his former home where he no longer lives and where one tenant was replaced with another for less money than the former tenant offered and at an amount lower than the market price. Clearly this was not about money.”
Ex-housing minister Rushanara Ali was forced to resign from the government after the I revealed she had ejected four tenants out of her east London townhouse before relisting the property for £700 pcm more in rent.
Last year, Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer defended borrowing an £18m penthouse flat owned by Lord Alli during the 2024 general election campaign. Among his other political donations, Alli also gifted Rayner a stay in his New York home for New Year’s Eve and gave the former deputy Labour leader £2,230 worth of clothing.
All of these actions by Alli were entirely legal.
You can see a much more detailed report on Lord Alli’s rental property here, although for some readers it may be behind a paywall: https://inews.co.uk/news/labour-super-donor-lord-alli-evicted-young-family-hiked-rent-1000-month-3907231?srsltid=AfmBOooaCecMTd8KYO1yQ1-ZrDF1ofZbBFMZlvRDqNcQOR5Qg54rCP67
This article is taken from Landlord Today