Landlords Evict Tenants Hit By Housing Benefit Cap

Officials at the central London county court have started granting eviction orders to a number of landlords in housing benefits cases, allowing them to begin eviction proceedings against tenants who are no longer able to afford their rents as a result of the new housing benefit cap.  During a busy rental repossessions hearing, one landlord was there to evict a woman and her three children from the flat they have rented from his company for the past two years.  This will be the ninth family the landlord has removed from their homes this year and he has a further 35 families that he has to evict over the next few months as the housing benefit cap takes effect. The woman did not attend and an order was granted in her absence.  "The social cost is immeasurable. Lives are being wrecked," he said. "I don't like ethnic cleansing, and that is what is happening." He described the tenants he was in the process of evicting as "exclusively non-white".  Read more on the Guardian website.