Rachel Reeves – the UK’s chancellor, who for over a year has presented herself as a straight-up rule-enforcer and regulation-lover – has now broken housing law. Reeves has admitted to renting out her family home without a license. Yet in 2023 she is on record calling for more of the rules she’s now broken.
According to the BBC:
Reeves rented out her Southwark home after moving into a flat in Downing Street after last year’s election win.
It is understood the chancellor used a letting agency but was not told the house was in an area that needed a “selective licence” to rent the property.
A spokesperson for Reeves said it was an “inadvertent mistake” and she has now applied for a licence.
Selective licensing and Rachel Reeves
After Labour won the 2024 election, Rachel Reeves put the flat up for rent for £3,200 a month in Dulwich. Southwark council govern the area, and requires landlords to take out a selective license to rent out properties.
Selective licensing applies to privately rented housing. It requires the local housing authority to license all properties in the designated area, unless it is a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).
Councils can make selective licensing designations if an area is experiencing any of the following conditions:
low housing demand (or is likely to become such an area)a significant and persistent problem caused by anti-social behaviourpoor housing conditionshigh levels of migrationhigh level of deprivationhigh levels of crime
If a local authority area has a high proportion of housing in the private rented sector, it can also consider the following grounds:
poor housing conditions and/ormigrationdeprivationcrime
One rule for them
Rachel Reeves may claim she wasn’t aware of the licensing requirements. But knowing the rules is literally the rule of government. If you set them, you should obey them.
Rachel Reeves had to go, we can’t have crooks running the country. She’s admitted to the crime so it’s time to go. https://t.co/TxhtOEFPI5
— salemzorro (@salemzorro) October 29, 2025
Southwark council website states:
You can be prosecuted or fined if you’re a landlord or managing agent for a property that needs a licence and do not get one.
The website also states that the maximum legal penalty is an unlimited fine, with a civil penalty of up to £30,000. It will be interesting to see whether the local authorities actually bother to prosecute her.
But Reeves might need her family home back sooner than expected.
Reeves rents out her family home even though she doesn’t have the licence required by the local authority. Not a good look the same week labour crow about introducing the renters reform bill is it? Might reeves need her home back sooner than she expected?
— lawrieg (@lawrieg3) October 29, 2025
How can we trust that they will fix the housing crisis when they can’t even follow their own rules?
When Reeves was shadow chancellor, she pushed for more selective licensing in Leeds to tackle “rogue landlords”. So one might think Reeves should be somewhat of an expert in selective licensing. Hmmmm.
Did she want to test Britain’s landlord laws from the inside?
This Rachel Reeves ? pic.twitter.com/wurmrGzfy6
— BritPepe
(@anglopep) October 29, 2025
Just like Angela Rayner, who massively underpaid stamp duty on her second home, Rachel Reeves now has the cheek to claim it’s not her fault.
HARD AGREE with this – relying on someone else when you should have checked yourself was no excuse for Raynor and must be no excuse for Reeves. I’m so annoyed at how this govt have performed
— Jo Costello (@JoCostello20) October 29, 2025
First Angela Rayner housing secretary and now the chancellor Rachel Reeves . They are as corrupt as they are incompetent. If they cannot manage their own financial affairs how can they manage the country’s . L is for Labour L is for Lies . #lisforlabourlisforlies cry me a river
— Audel Shirin (@AudelShiri71714) October 29, 2025
What is it with Starmers cabinet and their infringements with their homes. Phillipson lets out a room to another MP for £30k a year, Reeves doesn’t get the necessary licence to rent hers out and of course Ange lost her job for a tax fiddle. Anymore to add to the list?
— George #Never Reform . Support Kemi . Voting Tory (@twistpile) October 29, 2025
In a statement on X, Cllr Victor Chamberlain, leader of the Southwark Liberal Democrats, said:
When Southwark Labour introduced this licensing scheme, they promised it would crack down on bad landlords and protect tenants. Yet the Labour Chancellor has been caught breaking these rules, and the council hasn’t taken any enforcement action. This speaks volumes about Labour’s failure to properly regulate landlords locally.
If Rachel Reeves can’t follow the housing laws set by her own party in Southwark, how can anyone trust Labour to get it right for private renters across the country? Not only are Labour failing as social landlords, they can’t even follow their own rules when their Ministers are private landlords.
But Starmer has decided to stand by her, which is shocking after Rayner was forced to resign back in September.
Rachel Reeves has written to Keir Starmer apologising for her failure to get the correct licence to rent out her flat. PM’s ethic adviser has said there is no need to investigate as it is clear she has not broken ministerial code. pic.twitter.com/sZLdLerrJ2
— Hugo Gye (@HugoGye) October 29, 2025
Which is hilarious when Starmer himself has previously tweeted about ‘one rule for all’.
She literally broke the law?
She was literally an illegal rogue landlord.
Can every rogue illegal landlord now say:
“Oops, sorry, didnt know I needed a Landlord license”.
Really? pic.twitter.com/gXm0G9hxrI
— Dr Adali Warsame (@AdaliWarsame) October 30, 2025
During the same time that Labour have been pushing through the Renters’ Rights Bill, the chancellor was ignoring housing laws she previously pushed for, while making a profit. Talk about two-tier policing. We’re paying for Rachel Reeves to live in 11 Downing Street – meaning she can now make extra money off the home she owns.
She has been chancellor for nearly eighteen months, and the only thing she’s managed to nationalise during that time is incompetence.
Feature image via HG
By HG
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