British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves remained under pressure on Friday even after her realtor took the rap for a breach of the housing code after she rented out the family home in South London without a permit. File photo by Andy Rain/EPA-EFE
An upscale London real estate firm has apologized for failing to apply for local authority approval for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to rent out her familiy home in South London after offering to take care of it.
Gareth Martin, owner of Harvey & Wheeler, based in South London’s exclusive Dulwich Village, said Thursday that the firm’s then-property manager had promised to obtain the $1,250 “selective” permit required from Southwark Council, but the application was never submitted.
“We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a license had been applied for,” said Martin.
Martin said the manager unexpectedly quit the firm just days before the house was leased and nobody else in the office picked up on the fact the application to register the property as a rental remained outstanding.
He stressed the firm did not normally deal with the permits as compliance with housing codes was the responsibility of homeowners but the offer was made in this case in order to be helpful.
The mix-up led to Reeves having to issue a written apology to Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid calls from opposition lawmakers for her to be investigated or fired over the infringement for which the borough could impose an unlimited fine on Reeves or Harvey & Wheeler.
Southwark Council said it would not be taking action against either party, explaining that it usually sent a notice to landlords reminding them they are required to apply for a change of use and that it only resorted to prosecution as a last resort.
However, Reeves was still facing questions over the issue Friday because in her apology letter to Starmer she said had not been aware a permit was necessary.
Hours later, she was forced to issue a clarification, writing in a second letter to Starmer, that Harvey & Wheeler had informed her husband a license would be required, but that they would deal with the application. Reeves said she took full responsibility for the oversight.
Starmer has staunchly backed Reeves, saying Sir Laurie Magnus, his independent adviser on ethics, had ruled that it was an inadvertent oversight and that she had not broken the ministerial code.
Presented with the emails between Harvey & Wheeler and Reeves’ husband when consulted for a second time late Thursday, Magnus’ advice remained that he found “no evidence of bad faith.”
Magnus was appointed to the role by the previous Conservative administration of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Starmer offered only a mild rebuke of Reeves, who is set to deliver a watershed budget for the government in less than a month, in which she will lay out how she plans to plug a fiscal hole of as much as $40 billion and boost lackluster economic growth.
“Clearly it would have been better if you and your husband had conducted a full trawl through all email correspondence with the estate agency before writing to me yesterday,” he wrote, but said he accepted it was a mistake and that no further action was necessary.
However, Reeves’ defense that she did not know she needed to get a permit has also come under scrutiny because in recent days she posted on social media praising the regulations and saying they should be adopted more widely.
In a series of posts on X on Oct. 20, she hailed a city hall decision in the district in northern England she represents to extend the licensing scheme for private landlords to more areas.
“I welcome Leeds City Council’s decision to expand their selective landlord licencing policy to include the Armley area. While many private landlords operate in the right way, we know that lots of private tenants in Armley face problems with poorly maintained housing,” she wrote.
Opposition Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch said Labour had been mired in a series of scandals but there should now be a formal investigation by the ethics adviser, saying she would accept the outcome whatever was conclude
“She is the Chancellor,” she told the House of Commons on Thursday.
“This is an offense that she is supposed to have committed as Chancellor, a criminal offense, and maybe it is the letting agent’s fault. But isn’t it funny with Labour, it’s always somebody else’s fault. Always. It’s never their own fault,” said Badenoch.
Reeves put the family home on the market for $4,265 a month in July 2024 after becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer when Labour won a landlside general election victory.
The position comes with a residence in Downing Street, at no. 11, next to the prime minister’s.
