Following a successful campaign by Generation Rent, the government today announced voting reforms which will make sure millions more renters can cast our vote at future elections.
The reforms, which will also give 16 and 17 year olds the vote, will bring in automated voter registration. These changes aim to reduce barriers to democracy and to reduce voter registration gaps, by updating registration when renters move and update their address with government bodies.
Research conducted by Generation Rent found that automated voter registration has the potential to make voting easier for 91% of UK private renters aged 16 or over. With 66% of private renters not registered at their current address, and 6.8m private renters eligible to vote, this could give 2.3m more renters a vote at the next election.
In its policy paper “Restoring trust in our democracy”, the government plans to:
- Clarify laws so Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) can better access local authority data to maintain accurate registers.
- Work with partners (they mention universities specifically as an example) to encourage student registration through enrolment systems.
- Notify people if they’re automatically registered and give them the option to opt out or change details.
- The DWP, Department for Transport, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, HMRC, the Home Office and the Department for Education are working in collaboration with the MHCLG to identify “data-enabled opportunities” to support the overall objective of improving registration.
- Work with the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure data protection, especially for under-16s and vulnerable people.
Private renters are significantly underrepresented on the electoral register, largely due to instability and repeated moves. In fact, Generation Rent’s 2022 report found that around 1 million renters in England were not registered to vote at all.
Data from the Electoral Commission highlights the problem: only 39% of people who’ve lived in their home for less than a year are registered, compared to 95% of those who’ve lived at the same address for over 16 years.
The English Housing Survey reports that 37% of private renters move home more than once during a typical five-year election cycle. Even more of a concern, additional polling by Opinium shows that non-working renters are eight percentage points less likely to be registered than their working counterparts.
Private renters, often forced to move home several times between elections, are among the most at risk of falling off the electoral register. These reforms remove barriers to voting for renters, and this is great news for our democracy.
Automated voter registration will keep the vast majority of renters on the electoral register even as we move, protecting the opportunity for millions more voters to have their say.
Interested in supporting our work for wins like this? Consider joining as a Generation Rent member today.
