High Court to hear application for judicial review of right to rent scheme

The High Court will this week hear an application by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) for a judicial review challenge over the right to rent scheme.

Under the scheme landlords in England must check the immigration status of tenants.

The JCWI argues that the scheme “causes discrimination in the housing market”.

Chai Patel, its legal policy director, told Sky News: "The problem with this scheme isn't that individual landlords are necessarily racist, it's that the government has put in a place a scheme that incentivises systemic discrimination against certain groups.

"That contravenes the Human Rights Act and the European Convention of Human Rights, which prohibits that kind of discrimination and prohibits the government from putting in place schemes that encourage it.