Proof that millions of renters are failed by unfair rental laws
The latest English Housing Survey was out last week, and the results are further evidence for what we’ve been arguing for years: England’s rental laws are making life insecure and expensive for growing numbers of people.
Four early victories for the End Unfair Evictions campaign
It is less than a month since we launched our joint campaign – with ACORN, the New Economics Foundation and the London Renters Union – to end section 21 no-fault evictions, and we’ve already had some major successes.
Here are four things we can celebrate already.
A victory on tenant security, but the campaign continues
After reports in the Sunday papers, late yesterday afternoon the Ministry of Housing published its long-awaited consultation paper on “Overcoming Barriers to Longer Tenancies in the Private Rented Sector”.
It allows us a moment to celebrate the first success of the End Unfair Evictions campaign: an acceptance by the government that private tenancy law is failing England’s tenants – just as our petition passes 40,000 signatures.
Leaving the detail of the policy to one side for now, it is significantly the first time the government has considered a change to tenancy law. Up to now ministers have been talking of merely “encouraging” landlords to offer better terms – while most landlords might do this, a lot of tenants would get no benefit. We have been arguing that we need full reform and, while incentives are still an option, mandatory reform is now on the table.
Protection from revenge evictions a postcode lottery
This week we launched the End Unfair Evictions coalition with ACORN, London Renters Union, and New Economics Foundation. We’re calling for an end to Section 21, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason.
One reason we’re doing is that existing protections are not working in practice.
Back in 2014/15, we fought a hard campaign alongside Shelter, GMB Young London and others to give tenants basic protection from eviction when they complained about their landlord.
The resulting measures in the Deregulation Act 2015 stopped landlords from serving a Section 21 eviction notice to tenants if the council had found hazards in the property and served an appropriate improvement notice on the owner. This protection lasted for 6 months and was meant to give tenants more confidence in getting their landlord to fix health and safety problems, because the landlord can no longer simply retaliate by kicking them out.
New mayoral strategy develops plans for London’s private renters
Two million tenants in London will welcome the fact that getting a fairer deal for private renters is one of the Mayor of London’s five priorities for housing in the London Housing Strategy, which was published at the end of May. Given that Sadiq Khan’s housing powers are highly limited, what is his strategy promising to private renters in London?
Making deposits work for tenants
One reason the housing market is so stacked against renters is the high cost of taking our business elsewhere, so one of the ways we can make renters more powerful is to make moving house easier.
As our research site lettingfees.co.uk discovered, a typical household could save £404 when they move once the letting fees ban comes in. But a bigger cost – in the short term at least – is the damage deposit worth up to six weeks’ rent.
We estimate that 86% of renters get most or all of their deposit back, but only after they’ve already moved into a new home, so achieving that involves raiding their savings, or borrowing money.
That’s why today we’re calling on the government to start allowing renters to transfer part of their deposit to a new home once they’ve paid the final month’s rent.
MPs vote to ban fees
The Tenant Fees Bill had its second reading in Parliament on Monday evening, where it was debated at length by MPs before being passed unanimously through to committee stage. All the issues that we’ve raised as a concern – default fees, the deposit cap, enforcement of the ban on letting fees – were brought up by MPs in the course of the debate.
New staff join the Generation Rent team
We’re pleased to announce some big news at Generation Rent – with the award of three new grants, our campaign’s future has been secured for the next three years and we have been able to expand the team with two new members of staff.
We also have three new board members, including a new chair, Ian Mulheirn.
Jake White
Jake is Judicial Review Project Lead at the Equality and Human Rights Commission. His extensive experience spans the Department for Energy and Climate Change, Friends of the Earth and private practice. He has also provided pro bono advice to tenants at Waterloo Legal Advice Service in London.
Letting fees ban moves closer – but loophole remains
Good news for hard-pressed private renters facing rip off fees from letting agents.
The Government has introduced the Tenant Fees Bill into Parliament, which aims to ban the fees commonly charged by letting agents for new tenancy agreements. This is part of the Government’s promise to make private renting cheaper and fairer and it’s a much-needed piece of legislation, especially as a quarter of us in the UK will rent privately by 2021.