Right to rent checks are not working, with more and more landlords afraid to rent to those without British passports, according to a new report.

The paper by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) produced with assistance from the RLA, shows that the Government’s crackdown on illegal immigrants is creating a climate of fear amongst landlords.

The charity is calling on the government to abandon the scheme – a call echoed by the RLA which predicted such issues from the start. Landlords fear being heavily fined or even imprisoned if they fail to fully comply with the Right to Rent scheme, which requires them to check prospective tenants’ immigration status and refuse housing to those without the ‘right to rent’ in the UK.

JCWI’s research suggests that landlords who have no wish to discriminate are being forced to do so by the scheme – with people who have a full right to rent a home in the UK being disadvantaged, along with others who should be able to access housing.

The findings reflect research carried out by the RLA in November last year in which 43% of landlords said that they were less likely to rent to those who do not have a British passport because of the fear of criminal sanctions for getting it wrong.