Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali 'forced out tenants from east London townhouse and raised rent by £700'
Rushanara Ali, 50, is said to have increased the rent on the four-bedroom property from £3,300 to £4,000 after telling the previous tenants their lease would not be renewed.
The occupants at the home, just a short distance from the Olympic Park, were reportedly given just four months' notice to leave last November.
Weeks after they had left the property, it had been re-listed with the rent £700 a month higher than before, i paper reports.
A source close to the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney told the i the occupants were told their fixed-term tenancy would not be renewed and offered a rolling contract while the house was on the market, but chose to leave.
The property returned to the renters' market for £700 more a month than the previous rent when a buyer could not be found.
Ms Ali has previously criticised 'private renters being exploited'.
She has also said the Labour government would 'empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases'.
The government's upcoming Renters' Rights Bill will prevent landlords who have ended a tenancy to sell a property from then re-listing it with higher rent until six months or more after its occupants have left.
A former tenant of the east London property, Laura Jackson, told the i paper: 'It's an absolute joke. Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion'.
The occupants were also told by letting agencies that they would be charged £2,400 for the home to be repainted and professionally cleaned.
Landlords are prevented from charging tenants for professional cleaning under the Tenant Fees Act 2019.
It is understood the charges were dropped after Ms Ali was told of them.
Shadow housing secretary James Cleverley said the allegations 'would be an example of the most extreme hypocrisy and she should not have the job as homelessness minister'.
A spokesperson for Ms Ali said: 'Rushanara takes her responsibilities seriously and complied with all relevant legal requirements.'
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Labour's homelessness minister is facing calls to resign after reports claimed she hiked rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds just weeks after the previous tenants' contract ended. Four tenants who rented a house in east London from Rushanara Ali were sent an email last November saying their lease would not be renewed, which also gave them four months' notice to leave, the i newspaper reported. Ms Ali's property was then re-listed with a £700 rent increase within weeks, the newspaper said. Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chairman, called for the minister to stand down, accusing her of 'staggering hypocrisy' over her handling of the rental property. A spokesperson for the minister said: 'Rushanara takes her responsibilities seriously and complied with all relevant legal requirements.' The house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and it was only re-listed as a rental because it had not sold, according to the i. Tory frontbencher Mr Hollinrake said: 'I think it shows staggering hypocrisy. Rushanara Ali has been somebody who's obviously a Government minister in charge of homelessness. 'She's spoken out about exploiting tenants, about providing more protections to tenants. 'You can't say those things, then do the opposite in practice, as a landlord. She's got to resign.' He said the conduct appeared to be 'unethical, not illegal' but 'we can't just say one thing and do another'. The minister's actions have also faced scrutiny from rental rights campaigners, as the Government seeks to clamp down on what it sees as unfair rental practices. The Renters' Rights Bill includes measures to ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months. The Bill, which is nearing its end stages of scrutiny in Parliament, will also abolish fixed-term tenancies and ensure landlords give four months' notice if they want to sell their property. Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, described the allegations as 'shocking and a wake-up call to Government on the need to push ahead as quickly as possible to improve protections for renters'. He added: '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. 'These allegations highlight common practices that the Government can eradicate. 'The Renters' Rights Bill would ban landlords who evict tenants to sell the property from re-letting it within 12 months, to deter this kind of abuse – but unfortunately members of the House of Lords have voted to reduce this to six months. 'The Government can also use its review of the deposit protection system to penalise landlords who make exaggerated claims at the end of the tenancy.' Tom Darling, director at the Renters' Reform Coalition, said: 'It's mind-boggling that we have a homelessness minister who has just evicted four people in order to rake in more rent – something that will soon be illegal under the Renters' Rights Bill her own department is bringing through Parliament. 'The Government are currently considering an amendment to the legislation from the House of Lords which reduces the ban on re-letting after eviction from 12 months to six months. 'The Government must remove this amendment, and at the very least minister Ali must recuse herself from any discussions on this within Government.' Speaking to broadcasters, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper insisted Ms Ali had not breached any rules. 'I don't know any of the details of this, but I understand that she has followed all of the rules in this case,' Ms Cooper said.
