On Thursday 2nd May, voters in ten city regions will elect Metro Mayors. These are:
East Midlands – Greater Manchester – Liverpool City Region – London – North East –
South Yorkshire – Tees Valley – West Midlands – West Yorkshire – York and North Yorkshire
This means that 2.3m private renter households are electing a metro mayor in May – around half (48%) of the privately renting population. The candidates that win these elections will have the power to make positive change to the lives of tenants, and we should be at the centre of their campaigns. Metro Mayors have powers to improve their city region’s rental markets directly, but they also have a powerful voice on the national stage which they must use to demand reforms from the government in Westminster.
Everyone deserves a safe and secure home at a price they can afford. But many private renters in our cities face high rents, substandard and even dangerous conditions, all in the knowledge that they can be evicted by their landlord at just two months’ notice.
Lack of affordable homes in the private rented sector is fuelling a rise in homelessness. Mayors elected on 2nd May need a plan to ensure their city region’s renters have access to secure, quality and genuinely affordable homes. That’s why Generation Rent is calling on candidates for mayor in all of these areas to commit to:
- Creating a landlord and letting agent fines and prosecutions database.
- Working with the local police force to end illegal evictions through better police training and proper recording of incidents.
- Hosting a fighting fund to tackle the worst landlords and seize their properties.
- Asking national Government for powers to regulate rents, fast-track developments and approve licensing schemes in your region.
- Buying previously privately rented homes and provide them for social tenants, reversing the flow of social housing into the hands of private landlords.
- Creating a renters’ forum to involve private renters in decisions that affect housing and your wider work.
Read more in our briefing to Metro Mayor Candidates here.
