Hackney election candidates slam ‘medieval’ bailiffs at hustings

Green’s Zoe Garbett was one of several mayoral candidates to attend the hustings. Photo: LDRS

Several candidates vying to become Mayor of Hackney have promised to stop the council’s use of bailiffs to collect council tax debt if they win.

At an election hustings on Thursday (April 23) held by the local branch of ACORN Renters Union, the parties were urged to back their five pledges for improving housing conditions in Hackney, including putting an end to the “punishment and violence” of sending enforcers to residents’ homes over tax arrears.

ACORN says there is “absolutely no evidence these harsh collection practices are even leading to higher revenues for councils to provide local services”, and members from across the divide including Conservative, Green and Independents came out in support of their call for a “fairer and more humane approach”.

Conservative candidate for Mayor, Tareke Gregg, said if elected he would instruct the council not to use bailiffs at all, whether for council tax or parking tickets, and would campaign for the government to repeal the law allowing the practice.

The Greens’ Zoë Garbett also backed the union’s pledge. “Trust in public institutions is at an all-time low and bailiff use really doesn’t add to the kind of community and approach we want to take with residents,” she said.

This was echoed by two council candidates from Hackney Independent Socialists, who are not standing for Mayor but backing Ms Garbett’s run. Cllr Penny Wrout said the use of bailiffs “terrorised” people and “just didn’t work”.

Brian Debus, who is not standing for Mayor but as a councillor for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), called the practice “medieval” and urged residents to “turn the tables” on enforcers by picketing their offices.

The sole attendee not to take up the pledge was Reform’s candidate, Vahid Almasi, who agreed that bailiff visits were “traumatic for anybody” but said they should be used as a last resort rather than abolished outright.

Reform’s mayoral candidate Vahid Almasi. Photo: LDRS

“We need authority, because otherwise we’re introducing a crack in the system that people could misuse. If I am the Mayor, I need to run services and collect revenue,” he said. ACORN Chair James Maloy disputed that bailiff collection brought in “any revenues whatsoever”.

Neither Labour’s Caroline Woodley, the incumbent Mayor of Hackney, or the Lib Dems’ candidate Eva Steinhardt, turned up to the hustings. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands Ms Woodley had dropped out of the event days before after previously agreeing to attend. ACORN organisers responded by “empty-chairing” both candidates.

Mayor Woodley’s absence was significant in the context of the bailiff debate given the Labour-run council has recently been in the spotlight for using bailiffs to evict a family for subletting a flat. They were surrounded by local activists to prevent bailiffs turfing them out. A court suspended Hackney Council’s warrant to evict them so the bailiffs were stood down.

Current mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley was absent from the hustings. Photo: LDRS

While the debate was around the use of bailiffs for council tax collection rather than evictions, Hackney Council is increasingly using them for this purpose too. Council data obtained by ACORN through a Freedom of Information request (FoI), seen by the LDRS, revealed that the council did not refer a single council tax arrears case to bailiffs in 2022/23, but this rose to 13,837 the following year.

A union spokesperson told the LDRS: “We’re incredibly disappointed that Labour weren’t willing or able to come and lay out their position to the local community.”

In October 2025, over 300 ACORN members managed to shut down a conference of Civil Court Users Association, which the union called “one of the main events for bailiff and debt collection companies”.

Then in December, union members disrupted a meeting at Hackney Town Hall to put pressure on the council to bring in rent controls, use council land for council homes and improve accessibility in council homes.