The billionaire philanthropist making hundreds of Londoners homeless
Exclusive: He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?
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 fortune in Britain then moved to Abu Dhabi
London Centric has pieced together the enormous scale of the evictions with the help of sources with knowledge of the Criterion Capital business, local politicians, and the tenants themselves. Many expressed disgust at the way the Aziz family business operates. There was particular scorn for the contrast between the company’s treatment of tenants and how the family present themselves in public — especially the declaration of patriarch Asif Aziz that one of his main charitable objectives is “tackling homelessness”.
Aziz, who recently moved to low-tax Abu Dhabi and is increasingly delegating day-to-day control of his London operations to his son Omar Aziz, previously described his mission in life: “I have worked hard to accumulate wealth not simply for myself, but for the communities that I am a part of.”
Politicians, tenants and councils did not realise the evictions were coordinated to take place across London, rather than being isolated to individual buildings, until we told them. Some tenants only found out they were losing their homes when we knocked on their doors; others received their eviction notices the day after we visited their properties to ask if they were at risk. With hundreds of households affected, the Aziz evictions dwarf the scale of the mass evictions carried out by Henry Smith, another wealthy London landlord, which caused widespread consternation across the capital in 2024.
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“Modern day robber barons”
When we showed our findings to Merton Labour councillor Stuart Neaverson, who has been helping tenants at Britannia Point, he described the actions of Aziz’s company as “one of the worst mass evictions in our capital’s recent history”.
“Criterion are acting like modern day robber barons who have no interest in the welfare of their tenants or the communities they’re in,” he said. “They should immediately reverse this decision, explain why they attempted this mass eviction, and work to repair the relationships with the hundreds of people they’re trying to throw onto the streets.”
What’s more, the Aziz family’s charitable foundation receives income directly from some of the buildings where the evictions are taking place. This suggests the rent paid by the soon-to-be-evicted tenants could be subsidising the Aziz Foundation’s PR-friendly activities, including paying for interns to work in the offices of MPs and some national newspapers.
Sources with knowledge of Criterion’s business say that the ultimate plan is to evict almost all private tenants and redeploy hundreds of flats as temporary accommodation units that can be rented to local councils for far more money. A private renter made homeless by the Aziz family in the coming weeks could find themselves rehoused in the same property, this time paid for by a London council using public funds. Temporary accommodation is far more profitable for landlords — and comes with fewer rights for tenants.
From Piccadilly Circus gift shops to the Prince Charles Cinema and mass evictions
The Aziz family are regularly featured in London Centric for tolerating tax-evading gift shops in their central London shops, filling landmark areas of the capital with windowless hotels, and fighting campaigners over central London cinemas. Over the last twenty years their Criterion Capital company has used offshore companies to buy up enormous chunks of the capital’s property from pubs to shopping centres and exert massive control over the city. Their actions shape how the capital works — and what it means to live as a Londoner.
When London Centric phoned Criterion’s letting department, an agent confirmed that the company is “phasing out” all private tenancies and shifting to becoming a temporary accommodation provider. London Centric has already seen eviction notices for hundreds of tenants in Croydon’s Delta Point building, New Malden’s Emerald House, as well as Britannia Point in Colliers Wood. Residents of Criterion’s remaining properties told us they fear it is only a matter of time until they are also turfed out.
As our reporters criss-crossed the capital to speak to Criterion’s tenants this week, we occasionally arrived at a property just hours before tenants were served their eviction notices. Many more unidentified residential properties owned by the family are also believed to be affected.
“Second class citizens”
At Britannia Point in Colliers Wood, tenants last week received a bundle of documents, including the government’s How to Rent guide and gas safety certificates, through their doors.
Housing charity Shelter told London Centric that without these documents, any eviction notice being given by a landlord would be invalid, leaving the landlord unable to go through with the eviction. While the documents should be given to a resident at the beginning of the tenancy, they can legally be informed of their rights just moments before their eviction notice arrives.
Residents who spoke to London Centric suspect their evictions are being rushed in ahead of the arrival of Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act, coming into effect in May. When the law finally comes into force, it will stop landlords from easily evicting tenants using ‘no-fault’ evictions, where landlords can issue a ‘Section 21’ notice requiring a tenant to leave a property within a short period of time for no reason.
Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden, told London Centric it was “disgraceful” that Criterion is evicting hundreds of residents just before the new law comes into effect: “Criterion needs to work with our community, rather than treating the people of Colliers Wood like second class citizens.”
“Being evicted makes me feel shit”
It’s not the first time problems have emerged in the building. Tenants were left without hot water for a month in 2023, had issues with heating, and lifts that repeatedly broke.
Kay, 36, said she had been “depressed ever since” she’d been told she would be evicted, having paid her rent even when the property wasn’t up to scratch. “Being evicted makes me feel shit. I’ve been here since 2019, through all of the no hot water, no heating. My last resort is just finding a place where I can store everything and then stay with a friend till I figure it out.”
With many tenants given the exact same eviction date to move out, there was scepticism among them that, with one lift currently broken, and the other with a maximum capacity of only five people, the building would be able to accommodate the exodus.
Criterion has an intriguing attitude to debts relating to the building. Back in 2022, a pane of glass fell from the twelfth floor of the building and smashed on the ground. An inspection found 69 other windows across the tower needed replacing and Merton council was forced to erect emergency scaffolding around the base of the tower while repairs were done. That work cost the council £3m – money it says Criterion never paid back, leaving local taxpayers to pick up the bill.
In addition, as London Centric reported earlier this month, the company failed to pay to a licence a photograph it had used to promote the Britannia Point tower – a small matter for most businesses to sort. Yet when the bailiffs arrived at Criterion’s Piccadilly Circus HQ to collect the photo licensing debt, there was a physical altercation with Criterion staff that resulted in the police being called.
The Dark Knightmare of London property
A few miles down the road in Croydon, residents of the Aziz-owned Delta Point building are also being evicted. When London Centric arrived, one tenant was loading their belongings into a van.
Two residents who spoke to London Centric said that the building’s WhatsApp chat was full of private tenants who’d received eviction notices. They estimated as many as 200 properties are impacted. The former office block, which was used as a filming location in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, has been plagued by bed bugs, leaks, clogged pipes, and a cockroach infestation so bad a resident had one “suctioned” out of her ear by doctors.
It’s a similar story in New Malden at Criterion’s Emerald House, which has 20 “stunning” luxury flats – although Ole Herman Pedersen, who has lived there for seven years and pays £1,900 a month, said the flats were anything but luxury.
When London Centric visited on Thursday, tenants had not yet received their eviction notices. However, after we left, many told us they had found the paperwork posted under their front doors on Friday morning.
“Shocking”
The Aziz family’s role as some of London’s most high-profile philanthropists earned them their place on the stage next to Sadiq Khan this week.
But Merton councillor Stuart Neaverson accused their company, Criterion Capital, of having little interest in the lives of ordinary Londoners: “It is shocking to learn that Criterion are not just evicting hundreds of residents in Colliers Wood, but across London.”
London Centric contacted Criterion Capital and the Aziz family to ask about their decision to conduct one of the biggest mass evictions the capital has seen in recent years. They did not respond.
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Any comment from the Mayor’s Office? Given the widespread nature, it would seem that a coordinated response is needed
Thank you for highlighting this important and shocking story of greed and cruelty by the Criterion Capital company and the Aziz family. It's hard to believe the Mayor was unaware of the Aziz family's activities. If he was, his advisors and PR team don't have their ears very close to the ground.
My local MP happens to be Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, so I will forward the story to him.