The Court of Appeal has found that the Right to Rent scheme, a key plank of the hostile environment, causes racial discrimination. The judges confirm that as a result of this scheme, it is harder for black people, ethnic minorities and migrants to rent a home than it is for white British people.
But the Court stopped short of finding Right to Rent violated human rights law. They leave it to MPs and the Government to decide whether the racial discrimination is ‘greater than envisaged’.
Any amount of racial discrimination is unacceptable.
Right to Rent turns landlords into untrained border guards. If they rent a property to someone without the right paperwork, they face huge fines or even imprisonment. But there is effectively no consequence for taking the ‘low-risk’ option, opting for white people with British passports.
The result is that the Court of Appeal thought it could take black people, ethnic minorities and migrants up to twice as long to f…