Concern over rise in ‘notice to quit’ orders

A growing number of families with children are being thrown out of their homes by their landlords across Perth and Kinross, it has emerged.

The council’s housing and health committee was told on Wednesday last week that 90 families had been served a ‘notice to quit’by their landlord in 2015/16, up from 61 the previous year.

Council chiefs are already planning to hold a meeting with landlords in the autumn to discuss the reasons behind the evictions and build on relations.

The figures were revealed as councillors scrutinised the housing service’s annual performance report, which showed a rising number of families with children presenting as homeless.

It said 337 families presented as homeless in 2015/16, up from 244 in 2014/15 and 279 in 2013/14. The target set for 2015/16 had been less than 275.

The report stated that as well receiving notices to quit the main reasons for families presenting as homeless were family breakdowns and domestic abuse.

Noting all these reasons councillor Peter Barrett asked what was being done to tackle the growth in the number of notices to quit, commenting that previously the council had been effective in resolving eviction issues.

The council’s head of housing and strategic commissioning, Lorna Cameron, then told councillors the numbers of families that had been served notices to quit in 2015/16, adding that the numbers have not been this high since 2010/11.

Ms Cameron stressed the local authority still had“good relations”with landlords and that the meeting in the autumn would be an opportunity to discuss the“challenges”facing the council and the private sector.

Councillor Barrett remarked that he hoped relations with private landlords had not“drifted”over the years.