Labour MP defends himself as ‘renters champion’ after ‘poor conditions’ found in his properties
A Labour politician has defended himself as a “renters champion” despite flats he rents out reportedly found to be in poor condition.
Jas Athwal, the newly-elected MP for Ilford South, owns 15 rental flats, but some tenants have claimed they regularly have to clean their bathroom ceilings to remove mould.
In an investigation first reported by the BBC, one tenant in a block of seven flats in Seven Kings, Redbridge, said “there are ants everywhere” including on their child’s body and clothes.
Andrew Boff, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, who has also visited the properties, told Sky News that they were in “poor condition” and maintenance is to such a poor degree that it is “a risk to the residents”.
Responding to the investigation, Mr Athwal said he was “shocked” to hear of the reported condition of his properties, adding that they were managed by an agency which did not communicate any problems back to him.
“I am a renters champion,” he said, adding: “I’m proud to rent out homes with secure tenancies at below-market rents.
“I want every one of my tenants to have excellent accommodation; I’m shocked at the reported condition of a number of the properties and have asked the managing agent for an explanation and immediate action to rectify any issues.
“I know it’s my responsibility to have issues addressed as soon as they arise and have met with the property management company to understand failures in communication.
“I’m profoundly sorry that tenants have been let down and will be reviewing the property management and how matters are escalated going forward.”
Loose electrical cables in one of the seven flats
He said repairs and maintenance work on the properties will be done “swiftly”.
The discovery comes after Labour’s general election manifesto included a commitment to “transform” the experience of private renting.
A detached smoke detector
Formerly the leader of Redbridge Council, Mr Athwal is also required to have a selective property licence in order to rent out the block of seven flats – a system he introduced in 2017 when he was in charge of the council.
But Mr Athwal admitted that he had “recently seen an email” which said the licences were due to expire.
“I am in the process of renewing all licences,” he said.
“As council leader I implemented the most rigorous landlord licencing scheme in London in 2017, and expanded the scheme in 2023 and 2024 – the scheme would’ve been even stronger if Conservative housing secretaries had not repeatedly watered it down.
“In 2019, I led a campaign calling on government to abolish Section 21 evictions, further protecting tenants’ rights, which was again blocked by the Conservatives.”
It comes after the BBC found the council’s public licence register indicated that none of the seven properties had a licence.
Exposed electricals hanging from the ceiling
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Mr Boff also confirmed that there appears to be no record of any such licence – which he said landlords have to pay to receive – for the flats.
“He [Mr Athwal] calls himself a renters champion, and even introduced the licensing regime that apparently was trying to [get] some better deals for renters,” Mr Boff told Sky News.
“But it is a licensing regime that he didn’t avail himself of, whereas plenty of other people, plenty of other landlords in the London borough of Redbridge have had to pay money in order to get a licence so that they could let out their properties.”
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Mr Boff added that he feels Mr Athwal’s statement “sounds like bravado” and he would have respected him more if “he apologised to tenants for the poor service”.
“Unfortunately he is now trying to brazen this out, but I have seen the evidence and cannot understand how he can maintain the position that tenants are getting a good service from him.
“The landlord is responsible for the letting of the property. They take on an agent to make it easy for them, but they are the responsible people. If the managing agent is not doing their work, then that is the landlords’ responsibility.”
Mr Boff has called for both the Labour Party and Redbridge Council to investigate Mr Athwal.
Along with the 15 residential properties, the Labour politician also rents out three commercial properties, making him the biggest landlord in the House of Commons, according to Financial Times analysis of data from parliament’s register of members’ interests.
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Politics
Starmer was aware of the risks of appointing the ‘Prince of Darkness’ as his man in Washington – to an extent
It was a prescient and – as it turned out – incredibly optimistic sign off from Peter Mandelson after eight years as Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University.
“I hope I survive in my next job for at least half that period”, the Financial Times reported him as saying – with a smile.
As something of a serial sackee from government posts, we know Sir Keir Starmer was, to an extent, aware of the risks of appointing the ‘Prince of Darkness’ as his man in Washington.
But in his first interview since he gave the ambassador his marching orders, the prime minister said if he had “known then what I know now” then he would not have given him the job.
For many Labour MPs, this will do little to answer questions about the slips in political judgement that led Downing Street down this disastrous alleyway.
Like the rest of the world, Sir Keir Starmer did know of Lord Mandelson’s friendship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he sent him to Washington.
The business secretary spelt out the reasoning for that over the weekend saying that the government judged it “worth the risk”.
Keir Starmer welcomes Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte to Downing Street.
Pic: PA
This is somewhat problematic.
As you now have a government which – after being elected on the promise to restore high standards – appears to be admitting that previous indiscretions can be overlooked if the cause is important enough.
Package that up with other scandals that have resulted in departures – Louise Haigh, Tulip Siddiq, Angela Rayner – and you start to get a stink that becomes hard to shift.
But more than that, the events of the last week again demonstrate an apparent lack of ability in government to see round corners and deal with crises before they start knocking lumps out of the Prime Minister.
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‘Had I known then, what I know now, I’d have never appointed him’ Starmer said.
Remember, for many the cardinal sin here was not necessarily the original appointment of Mandelson (while eyebrows were raised at the time, there was nowhere near the scale of outrage we’ve had in the last week with many career diplomats even agreeing the with logic of the choice) but the fact that Sir Keir walked into PMQs and gave the ambassador his full throated backing when it was becoming clear to many around Westminster that he simply wouldn’t be able to stay in post.
The explanation from Downing Street is essentially that a process was playing out, and you shouldn’t sack an ambassador based on a media enquiry alone.
But good process doesn’t always align with good politics.
Something this barrister-turned-politician may now be finding out the hard way.
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