Campaigning charity Shelter has won the backing of the Co-Op Bank for a new anti-eviction drive.

The bank has funded Shelter research which claims that every day 172 private renting families in England are handed a Section 21 eviction notice – that is one every eight minutes.

Nick Slape, Chief Executive Officer at The Co-operative Bank, says: “Fighting poverty and inequality across the UK is extremely important to our customers, and that’s why we’re campaigning on this issue alongside Shelter.  

“We were encouraged to see [the Renters Reform Bill] brought to parliament, but we need to see tangible action from the government now. Families across the country are depending on it.”

The new figures from the charity’s analysis of a YouGov poll, funded by the Bank, claims that more than 188,000 private renters with children have received an eviction notice in the last three years, creating high levels of instability. 

The polling also claims to show nearly one in five private renting families (277,000 families) have had to move three or more times in the last five years.

In May, the government published its Renters Reform Bill to ban Section 21 evictions and introduce numerous protections for renters, but since then the Bill has failed to make any progress through Parliament. 

Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Shelter, comments: “The government is failing renters by stalling on the Renters Reform Bill. For each day that MPs are off on their six-week summer break, another 172 families will be hit with a no-fault eviction notice, giving them just two months to pack up and leave their home.  

“With private rents rising rapidly and no genuinely affordable social homes available, those with an eviction pending face an increasingly hostile situation. Far from a relaxing holiday, these families will be desperately scrambling to find somewhere to live. Many parents will be forced to overpay and accept dire conditions, or deal with the prospect of becoming homeless. 

“It is unacceptable that the Renters Reform Bill has made no progress in Parliament, when the very eviction notices the government promised to ban years ago are continuing to land on people’s doorsteps in their droves. The government must bring back the Bill as soon as Parliament returns. England’s 11 million private renters are depending on it.”