Proving further indication that not all is well in modern multicultural Britain, an investigation by The Telegraph has revealed that landlords are illegally advertising for tenants of a specific religious affiliation on platforms such as Facebook, Gumtree, and Telegram.
This includes advertisements for ‘Muslim only’ tenants across London and south-east England, with others exclusively searching for Hindus who are looking to live in private rented housing.
There are also forms of advertising which express a clear linguistic preference, specifically appealing to Gujarati and Punjabi speakers. Some even refer to specific Indian states such as Kerala (which is in southern India) and Haryana (a North Indian state).
All the advertisements in The Telegraph’s investigation appear to breach the 2010 Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of ‘protected characteristics’ such as race (which includes colour, nationality (including citizenship), ethnicity or national origins), religion or belief (including a lack of belief), and sex (with some of the advertisements clearly stating a sex-based preference).
While landlords who breach the Equality Act can be brought to a civil court by a tenant or prospective tenant, there is a partial exception if a person is renting out a room in their own home and sharing certain facilities with them (such as a kitchen or bathroom)
The Telegraph’s investigation shows that the portrait of modern Britain is becoming increasingly complicated, with diversity presenting its challenges.
These advertisements are certainly not a surprise to me, and we should be aware of previous examples and studies before this investigation took place.
Back in 2017, buy-to-let tycoon Fergus Wilson, who owned hundreds of properties in Kent, banned Indian and Pakistani tenants “because of the curry smell”.
He was ordered to ditch his policy following the granting of an injunction against it, which was issued by Maidstone County Court.
During the hearing, Mr Wilson described the case as "political correctness gone mad". The following year, an investigation by The Guardian found that inquiries from a person with a Muslim-sounding name in response to flat-share advertisements received significantly fewer positive responses, with experts saying that some ethnic-minority people face a ‘flatshare bias’ when searching for a room to rent.
'Muslim-only' rentals explode the myth of multicultural Britain - Rakib Ehsan | Getty Images
What all of this shows is that Britain is not necessarily the diversity haven that it's cracked up to be. While we may be a relatively successful example of an advanced, diverse democracy, that does not mean that we have problems in areas of everyday life – such as housing – which can place a direct strain on social cohesion.
The reality is that in many facets of life, there are people across a variety of races, ethnicities, and faiths that have a clear ‘ingroup’ preference – that makes the maintenance of social cohesion difficult, especially in an era of industrial-scale immigration and massive demographic change.
There is also the question of whether the Equality Act is itself an encroachment on private property rights and religious freedoms.
If a practising Muslim landlord has worked hard to build a property portfolio and does not wish for pork or alcohol to be consumed in housing that belongs to him/her, shouldn’t he/she have that right?
Or should the rights of a non-Muslim tenant to eat or drink what he/she likes, trump the preferences of the landlord in this instance?
And if Muslims face a ‘flatshare penalty’ when looking for a room to rent in the mainstream market, shouldn't co-religious landlords have the freedom to give them some sort of preference to compensate for it?
The issue of landlord-tenant relations, mixed with matters of religious rights and cultural preference, will make the area of private rented housing one of the most complicated in terms of determining and setting future policy.