Government responds to our call for clarity over rights of EU citizens post-Brexit
14 Nov 2018 11:30 AM
The Government has responded to a letter from the RLA which called for clarity over the rights that EU nationals will have to rent property both before and after the UK leaves the EU, including under a no deal Brexit.
In the letter which we sent in August, we also called for:
- A commitment from the Government that no changes will be made to rights of EU citizens to rent without at least 18 months’ notice to give landlords and tenants plenty of time to prepare.
- Action now to avoid a repeat of the recent concerns around the Windrush Generation by ensuring that EU nationals who have the right to rent can easily prove it to their landlord.
The Government’s response
In the Government’s response to our letter, which you can read here, it starts by reiterating the implementation period that the UK has agreed with the EU; which will run from 30th March 2019 until 31st December 2020.
Rentals, passports and ID cards
Specifically in relation to rentals, the letter continues by saying that until further notice, European Economic Area (EEA) nationals (who an automatic right to rent under the Immigration Act 2014) will continue to evidence this to landlords and letting agents by using their national passports and ID cards.
New global immigration system
In the Government’s letter, plans for a new global immigration system are touched upon. The new system will be introduced after the end of the EU-exit implementation period, with the Government adding that it will set out plans for the new system ‘in due course’.
Letter to the Home Secretary
The letter the RLA wrote to Brexit secretary Dominic Raab in August was not the first time the RLA has written to the Government on the matter.
In October, we joined forces with the campaign group ‘the3million’, and sent a letter to the Home Secretary Sajid Javid, calling for EU citizens to be provided with hard copy documents,proving their status in the UK, post Brexit.
Digital immigration status
However, in the letter to the RLA, the Government says that it is aware of calls for EEA nationals granted status under the settlement scheme to be issued with hard-copy documents, and that it feels that this would be a retrograde step.
They added that this would be “inconvenience EEA nationals and fail to reflect the increasingly digital nature of our modern economy”.
You can read the full letter from the Government to the RLA here
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