Evidence has emerged that the government’s scheme requiring private landlords not to rent to illegal immigrants has already led to British citizens without passports being turned away as tenants.

The immigration minister, James Brokenshire, told landlords on 7 July that the six-month pilot scheme which started in the West Midlands in December had raised concerns about some British citizens with limited documentation who appeared to find it harder to get access to rented accommodation.

A “snap meeting” was held by the Home Office with landlords last week to discuss the problem of British citizens being denied access to rented accommodation and to consider the list of ID documents that were acceptable for checking potential tenants’ immigration status.

More than 25% of calls to the official landlord checking service in the West Midlands pilot were about the list of acceptable ID documents. There are concerns that some documents are unfamiliar to landlords, are hard to verify and may be easy to forge.

Refugee welfare groups monitoring the “right to rent” scheme in the West Midlands said they had found examples of some British nationals being stopped from moving into a private rented home because they could not afford the £72.50 fee for a passport or did not have a birth certificate.



Communities secretary Greg Clark: We’re cracking down on landlords who undermine immigration system Guardian

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said that many migrants from outside the EU were having problems proving they had a right to live in the UK.

Ministers have announced that the requirement for landlords to check on the immigration status of potential tenants is to be toughened and rolled out across the country even before an official evaluation of the West Midlands pilot scheme has been completed.

Brandon Lewis, the housing minister, told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One, the evaluation would be published at the end of August.



As part of the government’s drive to “create a hostile environment for illegal migrants in Britain”, ministers have outlined plans to allow illegal migrants to be evicted without a court order and for the maximum £3,000 fine on landlords who are found to be wilful repeat offenders to be raised to a possible five years in prison.

Landlords and letting agents will meet Home Office and housing ministers on Monday to discuss the new plans in greater detail. The immigration bill in September is to remove current protections from eviction for illegal migrants and give powers to landlords “to take steps to evict the tenant, after a short notice period, without the need for a court process for repossession, unless eviction requires the use of force”.

The National Landlords Association said the stronger eviction powers were “largely welcome news” but they remained concerned “about what landlords will be expected to do to end tenancies and the types of confrontational situations that could ensue”.

More than 200 migrants attempt to breach the inner fences of the Eurotunnel in Coquelles, near Calais, on Saturday night Guardian

The association’s chief executive, Richard Lambert, told the BBC: “I do worry in the case of an illegal immigrant you possibly have a despairing person in a desperate situation. That often leads to people doing very desperate things. Who knows? Barricading themselves in? There is the risk of defending themselves with all the force they can muster. It could put people in potential danger. We need to think through the consequences of the kind of system we are putting in place.”

The Liberal Democrats blocked a decision by the home secretary, Theresa May, to roll out the landlord checks across the country last year and in the coalition restricted the proposal to a trial scheme in a single area – the West Midlands.

Nick Clegg said the party was concerned that it would increase homelessness and drive migrants underground into the hands of unscrupulous landlords. At the time, however, the Conservatives refused to recognise the pilot nature of the scheme and insisted it would be phased in after the election, regardless of the evaluation results.