At Generation Rent, our vision is simple: for everyone to live in a secure, quality and affordable home.
We have been at the heart of campaigning for steps towards that goal in recent years, including limits on rent rises in Scotland, the tripling of eviction notice periods in Wales and banning of most letting agent fees in England. However, no-one could look at the state of renting in the UK today and consider it a job done.
In 2025, every parliament and assembly across the UK will debate how to tackle the housing crisis. As we influence the new laws and strategies taking shape, we will also be campaigning for our long-term vision for our homes.
Homes as a human right
Everyone needs a home.
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights sets out a clear human right to adequate housing; to be adequately housed means not having to worry about being evicted or having your home or lands taken away.
We want to make these protections a reality here.
But, from barriers to accessing new tenancies, to poor treatment once in a home, and greater risk of eviction or unaffordable rent rises, renting in the UK is disproportionately challenging for certain groups including those receiving benefits, minority ethnic people, care leavers and migrant people. That is why a universal right to a home is so important.
Affordable homes
The staggering speed of rent rises in recent years has gone totally unchecked in most of the UK, with the typical renter spending a third of their pre-tax salary on rent. While half of renters already have no savings at all. According to Zoopla, the average new let is being advertised at £270 more per month than it was three years ago.
Building homes is vital but it will take a very long time, is never finished, and, at the current ambition, is not expected to lead to rents falling – only slowly becoming more affordable in relation to wages, meaning they will continue to stay well out of reach for people on low incomes.
Limiting rent rises is therefore common sense and already happens in Scotland and many similar countries abroad. Across the UK we are already used to government intervention where private providers cannot be trusted to offer a fair price for essentials. Just as there is an energy price cap in place to help people pay ‘a fairer price’ on our essential bills, it must be recognised that our homes are also essential and too often unfairly priced.
Secure tenures
No matter where you live in the UK, horror stories of evictions are taking place right now in your neighbourhood. Some parts of the UK offer better eviction protections than others, but too many renters still avoid raising complaints or asserting our rights for fear of being kicked out. The typical tenancy in Germany is 11 years, while it is less than 3 years in England, with similar estimates across the four nations.
No-one should be evicted without a lawful reason, but the law varies so much across the UK that it becomes more a matter of procedure than trying to prevent the harm that evictions cause.
Any long-term strategy should focus on the impact of evictions, lawful and illegal, and put measures in place to prevent evictions from forcing anyone into debt, poverty or homelessness. If we cannot end evictions altogether, it is high time tenants were compensated for moves outside our control.
Quality homes
Everyone needs a safe and warm home, but more than one million privately rented homes don’t meet this definition. Minimum standards for private rented homes vary across the UK, and councils up and down the country lack the resources to stop landlords from renting out homes that are unsafe to live in. Any landlord failing to comply with standards should have to refund rent to their tenant and face serious penalties or banning orders.
We should be able to make a house a home, which means making adjustments that we need, decorating if we want to, and keeping a pet without having to pay a premium.
The UK’s governments also have the opportunity to face up to the climate emergency while reducing fuel poverty for millions, by pushing ahead with rapid improvements to the energy efficiency of our homes. This is vital to keeping our homes warm and our bills down, but renters must be protected from any unintended consequences of this, particularly evictions or rent hikes where a landlord receives a means tested Government grant.
Private renting as a choice
This might seem like a wacky thought, but renters could be the envy of homeowners. Buying (and selling) a home is an arduous process which leaves home owners without the flexibility that renting gives you. If renters also paid affordable rents for good quality homes, and didn’t have the fear of an eviction looming on the horizon, then it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine homeowners looking on wistfully from over the garden fence. But at the moment this vision seems a laughable flight of fancy. People instead feel trapped in private renting.
The renting crisis will only end when people have the option of social housing if they need it, home ownership if they want it, and when private renting gives us attractive options too.
What can you do?
Change must happen. But for that, we need you. Sign up to to join us here.
Do you have a story to tell as a private renter? Tell us here!
