Met appeal to trace bogus landlord
At least six renters in London have been ripped off to the tune of £30,000 since April by a fraudster posing as a landlord.
The Met Police have issued an alert today for information to catch the suspect, pictured below, and have asked members of the public to call 101 and quote reference 1217609/15.
A Renters Union?
When we launched Vote Homes we called on the candidates to take action on rents, housebuilding, security and conditions.
But we also asked for something a bit more fundamental: for the next Mayor to commit to meeting regularly with renters groups.
The London estate being torn apart by evictions
If ever there was a case for the reform of private renters’ rights it’s this.
Residents of Dorchester Court in Herne Hill all rent from the same landlord, Manaquel Ltd. In recent years, the company has tried putting up the rent by 30% in many cases – some of the residents managed to negotiate a lower increase, but are still paying much more than before.
This year, instead of having their tenancy renewed, the landlord has been issuing them with section 21 eviction notices – giving the tenant 2 months to leave – without giving them a reason or any option to stay.
[photo: Brixton Buzz]
Are garden cities the answer to the housing crisis?
Next year’s General Election will be decided by generation rent. There are 86 seats with enough private renters without party allegiance to overturn the incumbent MP’s majority, so every party should be courting their vote. After Labour’s pitch on rent reforms, the Coalition parties have used the Queen’s Speech to respond with their own grand plan: garden cities, and legislation to reform planning laws to bring them about.
Majority of under-40s to rent privately by 2025
With impressive speed after the Budget, the accountancy firm PwC has published its Economic Outlook for the UK, and its prediction that a majority of under-40s will be renting privately by 2025 made the front page of the Guardian this morning.
Robbie de Santos
Robbie de Santos is Head of Campaigns at the LGBT equality charity Stonewall, where he leads on high profile public attitude campaigns and developing a social movement of equality campaigners. Robbie has a decade of experience in campaigning, including three years leading Shelter’s policy work on private renting and developing the campaigns function at the UK’s leading debt charity StepChange.
Ian Mulheirn
Ian Mulheirn is the Director of Consulting of Oxford Economics. He was previously Director of the Social Market Foundation, leading it to win the Prospect Magazine UK Think Tank of the Year award in 2012, and before that an economist at HM Treasury. In 2016 Ian sat on the panel of the Redfern Review into the decline of home ownership.
Robert Carver
Currenly Rob is a freelance consultant, writer and researcher, with interests in the housing market (naturally), quantitative finance and the investment industry. My last professional role was at AHL, a quantitative hedge fund for over 7 years; for the last 3 years I managed the team running a $5bn fixed income portfolio. Before that I worked for CEPR, an economics think tank, as a research manager; and as an exotic derivatives trader for Barclays Capital. I spent my early career in the middle east mainly working as a government trade consultant but also co-founding a sports coaching business.
I have a Bsc from Manchester and an Msc from Birkbeck London, both in Economics.
Rosa Payne
Rosa has been working in social housing for eight years across a range of operational and strategic functions and feel strongly that a decent and secure home makes a huge difference to people’s life chances. Her current role is Business Development Manager at Catalyst Housing Association, having previously worked as Head of Service Improvement and Customer Learning at Network Stadium Housing Association. She has previously managed the Mechanical and Electrical department for Network Housing Group, was the contract manager of a major PFI refurbishment programme for Partners in Islington and was a Housing Officer on a large estate in south London. She earned an MSc in Housing and Regeneration from the LSE.
Natasha Adams
Natasha has worked as a professional campaigner for 7 years’ experience coordinating NGO campaigns for social and environmental justice (with many more years experience as a grassroots activist). A skilled lobbyist & digital campaigner, she has specialised in activism as she believes deeper mass engagement and strong social movements are essential to driving change. Natasha currently works for ActionAid UK coordinating activism and also sits on the Council at Global Justice Now. She has previously managed campaigns for End Child Poverty and Concern Worldwide. Before she campaigned professionally, Natasha spent several years working in a women’s refuge in Nottingham.