Every seven minutes a private renter in England is handed a Section 21 (“no-fault” eviction) notice by their landlord. This allows landlords to evict a tenant without having to give any reason for doing so, with only two months’ notice. Despite an eviction ban being in place for 14 months due to the pandemic, in 2022, nearly 230,000 private renters had been served with a formal no-fault eviction notice, and forced to leave their homes. As a result, homelessness due to no-fault evictions was up by 143% in a year. Through this campaign, Shelter’s aim was to compel the Government to deliver on its long overdue promise; deliver a Renters’ Reform Bill as a matter of urgency, and make private renting fairer and safer for all. Specifically, it was vital that the bill contained an outright ban on Section 21 “no-fault” evictions, giving renters greater security in their homes.

To shine a light on the UK's housing emergency – and effect actual change in parliament – we took real rental horror stories reported to Shelter, and listed them as genuine properties available to let. We opened a fictional lettings agency – Only Choice Lettings – in the heart of an unsuspecting affluent suburban high street, and put the hellish properties up for rent, not just in the agent’s windows, but everywhere a real estate agent would list them. In the papers, on social media, and throughout the suburbs as posters and 'To Let' signs.

By bringing these shocking stories to the mainstream, in places where they’d usually see legitimate properties in well-polished shop windows and property sections of their daily paper, we aimed to raise awareness of the issue and inspire people to take action.

There are 11m private renters in the UK living at the mercy of an unregulated and mercenary private rental system. According to YouGov, 1/4 of all private renters (2.8 million) have been forced out of their private rented homes three or more times in the last five years.

To address this issue, the campaign aimed to gather enough signatures to trigger a political response, with the goal of effecting change in the UK rental system. The objective was to introduce a Renters' Reform Bill, which would ban no-fault evictions in 2022, providing private renters with much-needed stability during a time of uncertainty.

We worked with Shelter's political lobbyists to launch a PR campaign during Parliamentary sittings, and encouraged opposition ministers to visit Only Choice Lettings to see the need for reforms firsthand. The goal was to achieve one objective: to bring about rental reform and change the law.

Only Choice Lettings was a fictional estate agent created both physically and digitally to raise awareness about the poor living conditions of some rental properties.

The campaign showcased real rentals that people had been evicted from, featuring shocking features such as asbestos and rat-infested kitchens, in order to encourage public engagement and generate PR coverage, with a call-to-action to sign a petition aimed at driving change in the private rental sector.

It ran for one month from April 2022 and gained significant traction, culminating in a landmark change on 16 June 2022, when the government published the 'A Fairer Private Rented Sector' White Paper. This document outlined commitments that would be included in the Renters' Reform Bill, which was set to be a game-changer for the private rental sector.

The campaign had a clear objective and a simple call-to-action: sign Shelter's petition demanding change from the UK government. Within a month of launching, the petition received 79,516 signatures, forcing debates in Parliament and putting pressure on the government. As a result, the government promised to introduce a Renters' Reform Bill in the Queen's Speech, with the Prince of Wales stating that it would "improve the regulation of social housing, strengthen the rights of tenants, and ensure better quality, safer homes."

Following this, the then Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, introduced the proposed reforms from the petition to select committees and parliament. On 16 June 2022, the "A Fairer Private Rented Sector" White Paper was published, outlining the government's commitments in the Renters' Reform Bill. This represented the most significant reform to housing in a generation, including the scrapping Section 21 ("No fault" evictions)