Merely ending no-fault evictions will not be enough to tackle the issue of rough sleeping in Brighton and Hove, a housing expert has warned.

The Renters’ Rights Bill had its second reading in the Commons last week and is looking to end Section 21 evictions, which the Labour government describes as one of the “root causes of homelessness”.

Section 21s, or no-fault evictions, allow landlords to evict tenants with two months' notice without providing a reason.

Brighton and Hove had the highest number of rough sleepers of any local authority in the South East in the autumn of 2023 with 52 - an increase of 27% on the year before, according to government data.

However, Andy Winter, the former chief executive of the homeless charity BHT Sussex, has said merely ending no-fault evictions will not resolve the matter and that the court system needs repair or reform for the bill to be effective.

Discussing no-fault evictions in Brighton and Hove, Mr Winter said: “They are the number one cause for people becoming homeless, they are a major problem but I don't think by merely abolishing it will resolve the issue.

“A lot of the measures will be difficult to enforce and rights are only as good as one's ability to enforce them.

“The courts are at near collapse, it takes six months to a year before a court date can be secured. That's not good for the tenant and that's not good for the landlord.

“The previous government cut the court services to the bone and the new government is showing no signs of repairing the damage.

He added: “People need legal aid to help them access the courts and again that has been cut to the bone by the previous government and the new government, again, is showing little appetite to correct this wrong.”

Mr Winter also suggested that the Renters’ Rights Bill may have an adverse impact by deterring landlords from renting their properties to vulnerable people in the first place and that the creation of “specialist housing courts” could offer a solution.

He said: “Some (landlords) will take huge risks with their property by renting to people - I can think of one landlord in particular - who no other landlord will accommodate.

“If he loses the ability to regain the property then he has told me he is unlikely to rent out to the most vulnerable people and that will be an unintended consequence.

“He is going to be far more picky who he rents his property to. It will cause problems and we need to find an alternative not merely abolishing it.”

The housing expert has suggested this could be made worse by Brighton and Hove’s “chronic” issues with anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the legal difficulties around evicting tenants because of it.

Two Brighton neighbourhoods - The Lanes and the North Laine - ranked as the 20th most anti-social neighbourhoods in the entire UK in June 2023, according to data from Police.UK.

These neighbourhoods experienced the highest rate in Sussex with 106 incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB) for every 1,000 people, compared to the national average of 17.

Landlords can issue a Section 8 notice to recover properties following ASB from tenants but this requires concrete evidence such as a conviction.

There are other grounds that landlords can use to regain their property following this type of behaviour but they can often be open to interpretation in court, meaning landlords typically use Section 21.

Mr Winter said: “Where you have a tenant who is causing anti-social behaviour, damaging the property or not paying the rent, then the landlord has a reasonable cause to want to gain possession.

“The anti-social behaviour issue is chronic in Brighton and Hove with the problems we have with addiction, with excessive alcohol use and associated anti-social behaviour.

“I would argue for the creation of specialist housing courts with specialist housing judges who could expedite matters.”

The proposed law changes going through Parliament were put before MPs by Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, who said she is “determined to get this bill into law as soon as possible.”

Across the UK, the number of single households assessed as rough sleeping increased by 14.2% from 2022-23 to 16,680 households in 2023-24, according to government data.