Rules that allow private landlords to evict tenants for no reason with just two months noticed should be abolished, say two Labour councillors.

Coun Emma Bushell and Coun Paul Dixon will ask the council to write to the government to get the law changed.

A motion the pair will put to council on Thursday says: “Most of England’s 11 million renters are on tenancies with fixed terms of six months or a year.

"After this period has ended landlords can evict their tenants with just two months’ notice, without giving a reason. These ‘no fault evictions’ were introduced under Section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act.

“Eighty per cent of evictions are on no-fault grounds and 63 per cent of private renters who were forced to move in 2016 were evicted not due to any fault of their own but because the landlord wanted to sell or use the property.”

It adds that 'no fault' evictions were banned in Scotland in 2016 and four councils in London and Cambridge council have all agreed motions to do likewise in England.

If the motion is passed this week officers will have to provide a report on how many people were made homeless by a private ‘no fault’ eviction in Swindon, and the cabinet member for housing, Coun Cathy Martyn, will write to the housing minister and Swindon’s two MPs urging the government to abolish such evictions.

Coun Bushell, who is the Labour group’s spokesperson on housing, said: “One of the things the motion asks for is a report on how many people have been affected by this in Swindon – because we don’t know those figures – but anecdotally I have casework as a councillor, and colleagues have too, of people who have just been given two months’ notice to evicted, and they haven’t anywhere to go – they risk ending up on the street.

“Tenants are increasingly vulnerable to this and landlords are able to just offer short contracts and then can tell tenants to leave for any reason at all.

“That might be because of a change in the landlord’s circumstances, but also, with rents going up, those who are solely focused on profit, can get an existing tenant out and put the property back on the market for a higher rent.

"Many landlords are very good, but there are some who are solely motivated by profit.”

Coun Bushell added: “It’s bad enough if this happens to a single young professional or couple – but lots of families rent privately and if you’ve got children in school it must be awful – it’s hard to get a new deposit together, it’s hard to get council housing because of pressures there, they can end up homeless.”

The motion will be debated at the meeting starting at 7pm on Thursday April 4.