The controversial activist group Acorn has made a formal public apology to the chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association.

On the social media platform X – formerly known as Twitter – the Acorn Brighton group issued the following statement this week:

“We are writing to correct a statement made in the template response to the Landlord Licensing consultation previously shared on this page. 

“The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) is not campaigning against the abolition of Section 21 evictions, which was incorrectly claimed.

“Further to this we mistakenly stated that Ben Beadle (CEO of the NRLA) lied to Parliament, based on a claim made in an article in the Guardian, which has been corrected since publication. 

“We have removed this wording from the template response to the consultation and would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Ben Beadle.”

Beadle posted on X that he accepted the apology.

This is not the first problem encountered by Acorn over statements it has made.

In spring 2022 a landlord, Zobia Rafique, won £100,000 in damages after she sued Acorn for harassment, defamation and breach of data rights.

A relatively minor disagreement between Rafique and one of her tenants – over the return of a £300 deposit – escalated when Acorn activists blogged and posted abusive statements on social media, threatened Rafique using a loud hailer and held a public meeting about her outside Sheffield town hall.

Her neighbours were posted leaflets calling her a ‘dodgy landlord’.