The Early Day Motion has already been backed by 19 additional MPs from both sides of the House.
Landlord Action is calling on homeowners to support the campaign in two ways. Firstly, by signing a petition which will be presented on 4th April at Downing Street, and secondly, by writing to their local MP encouraging them to back the campaign. More details can be found at www.landlordaction.co.uk/squatting
Spokesman for Landlord Action, Yogesh Chandarana, comments:
“Essentially, squatters consume services that they have not paid for. Many would feel that it is wrong. We have been advocates of homeowner rights for over ten years, and we have seen the situation getting worse. It is reassuring to see that MPs such as Mike Weatherley are taking action to help the situation.”
A spate of high profile, well publicised cases have brought squatting to the forefront of the National press recently, highlighting the growing injustice being done to homeowners by squatters, many of whom travel thousands of miles to engage in squatting knowing they will be protected by the law.
In one example, squatters in Brighton made a freedom of information request to see which council homes were empty. An obvious strategy to target homes, it clearly demonstrates the level of organisation that squatters are now achieving.
Mr Weatherley comments:
“The problem is that squatting is not a criminal act so they get evicted from one home and simply move on to another, to then be evicted and evicted and evicted. Brighton and Hove has been plagued by a number of repeat squatting cases and in at least the last seven years, police have made no squatting prosecutions due to the difficulties in obtaining evidence where technical criminal infringements have been made.
"We need to criminalise this act so these people can be held to account for their actions and we hope that the recent media attention around this topic will drum up enough support for the EDM to be submitted for debate in the House of Commons."
