The billionaire philanthropist making hundreds of Londoners homeless

Thousands of people cheered this week as Sadiq Khan joined the family of billionaire landlord Asif Aziz to switch on the capital’s Ramadan lights in the heart of the West End. Aziz’s charitable foundation, which received widespread plaudits for funding the display, said it held the event to celebrate the “coexistence and community spirit that make this city so incredible”.

What those attending the ceremony didn’t know was that the Aziz family were, at the same time they were publicly praising London’s community values, secretly embarking on “one of the worst mass evictions in our capital’s recent history”.

London Centric has learned that in the coming weeks the Aziz family’s Criterion Capital business intends to remove hundreds of Londoners – including some marking the month of Ramadan – from their homes. These mass “no-fault” evictions of private tenants, which sources say are planned to be finished before the government’s Renters’ Rights Act comes into effect, are taking place on an unprecedented scale. They are going ahead regardless of whether the residents are up-to-date with their rent or have kept the property in good condition. Many residents have paid tens of thousands of pounds in rent to the Aziz family’s companies in recent years.

One of the Aziz-owned blocks where tenants are being cleared out is a former office building called Britannia Point in Colliers Wood, where one-bed flats rent for £1,700 a month. Earlier this week hundreds of its residents received letters pushed under their front doors informing them that they have two months to find somewhere else to live.

Lenny Kasi-Appiah, 40, said he came home to find the eviction notice this week. “Reading it, I thought, is this a mistake? I’ve always paid my bills on time, always paid my rent on time.”

When London Centric visited the building on Thursday, there was confusion as not everyone had received their post – but an email sent to one tenant confirmed “the landlord will be seeking vacant possession of the entire building.”

Another of the soon-to-be-evicted residents is Raluca, who moved in with her boyfriend in 2019. “It’s horrible looking for somewhere else at the same time as everyone else, all in the same area. You cannot find anything for the price we’re paying for this flat. We’ll either have to increase our rent by £300 or move outside of London. It’s so stressful.”

The billionaire who made his ...