A landlord from Kent who asked his letting agency to apply a policy of not renting his properties to “coloured” people has been told he is acting unlawfully, reports the BBC.
The case was heard at Maidstone County Court after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) applied for an injunction against the policy.
According to the landlord, who reportedly owns several hundred properties in Kent, his policy was not in any way discriminatory and was applied for purely economic reasons. He claimed that when curries were regularly cooked in a property the smell became ingrained and was expensive to get rid of at the end of tenancy.
However, the court found his actions to be discriminatory and unlawful and issued a three-year injunction against the policy of denying tenancies to people of Indian or Pakistani descent.
The
EHRC has welcomed the court’s decision.
"We welcome this outlawing by the court of Mr Wilson’s discriminatory letting policy,” commented Chief Executive Rebecca Hilsenrath. “Our homes are fundamental to our private lives and to who we are. Denial of a home on the grounds of race or colour is abhorrent conduct we do not accept in today’s society.”
“There are still deep inequalities in our country, as our race report earlier this year demonstrated, and sadly some of the causes of those inequalities were illustrated by Mr Wilson’s comments over the summer,” she added. “However, today takes us one step closer to a more equal Britain."
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