The Court of Appeal has found that the Right to Rent scheme, a key plank of the hostile environment, causes racial discrimination. The judges confirm that as a result of this scheme, it is harder for black people, ethnic minorities and migrants to rent a home than it is for white British people.

But the Court stopped short of finding Right to Rent violated human rights law. They leave it to MPs and the Government to decide whether the racial discrimination is ‘greater than envisaged’.

Any amount of racial discrimination is unacceptable.

Right to Rent turns landlords into untrained border guards. If they rent a property to someone without the right paperwork, they face huge fines or even imprisonment. But there is effectively no consequence for taking the ‘low-risk’ option, opting for white people with British passports.

The result is that the Court of Appeal thought it could take black people, ethnic minorities and migrants up to twice as long to find a property to rent as a white British person.

The Government should be doing everything in its power to stamp out discrimination – instead, it is still arguing it should be allowed to cause it.

The Home Office has always maintained that this racial discrimination wasn’t caused by the scheme. Now we have two court rulings confirming that the Government is causing racial discrimination in the housing market against ethnic minority British people, like the Windrush generation.

At a time when our lives depend on our ability to stay at home safely, ethnic minorities and foreign nationals are being forced by the government to face discrimination in finding a safe place for them and their families to live.

We won’t give up until the hostile environment is scrapped. That’s why our next step is to appeal this decision in the Supreme Court.

Together, we can make our voices heard and show the Government that this policy has to go.

Please go one step further today and join the fight as a member, for just £5 per month. Everything we do, from casework to campaigns, relies on support from people like you.

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Right to Rent - the story so far