As more couples with children live in the PRS, will it ever be family-friendly?
Today the Department for Communities and Local government released some of the datasets underpinning the latest English Housing Survey (comprising of data up to the year 2013/2014, the most recent we have) and the central finding is no longer surprising – the private rented sector continues to grow.
Is life outside the capital the answer for London’s renters?
Another year, another inflation-busting rent rise. Many of London’s workers would be forgiven for wondering whether it wouldn’t make sense just to up sticks and join the commuters vaulting the green belt every morning. Well wonder no more.
We looked at whether it is cheaper to rent outside of London and commute in by train every day, or if the capital is still worth it. The answer is the latter – just about.
The government’s immigration folly overshadows good work to tackle rogue landlords
Today the government announced a raft of measures that will be in the Housing Bill that being is being prepared for Parliament later this year.
Sadly much of the focus was on the extension of the duty to all landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants. We’ve already expressed our opposition to this policy elsewhere, but it is particularly galling that this is being taken forward when there has been no public analysis of the West Midlands ‚Äòpilot scheme’, and other groups have seen cases of it increasing discrimination in lettings.
Despite this policy dominating the headlines, though, the Department for Communities and Local Government has also announced more welcome plans to improve the systems for tackling rogue landlords.
Zero inflation, but not if you’re a private renter
The government has made a big song and dance about the zero inflation rate – for the first time in years the cost of living isn’t rising. But that only applies if you don’t have to worry about the rent.
Today the Office for National Statistics published the latest private rental inflation figures, which stand at 2.5% across Great Britain, and 3.8% in London.
Save Generation Rent – donate today!
Generation Rent needs your help. We unexpectedly have only two months of funding left. There is a real danger that the campaign will simply vanish, and with it the national voice of private renters in the media and political debate.
We are working hard to secure new sources of long term funding, but this will take months and we need your help now. We need to raise £60,000 by 31 August. These funds would allow us to continue our work empowering renters to put pressure on Parliament, the London mayoral candidates and local councils while applying for grants and building a sustainable organisation.
Please donate just £20 – or what you can afford – on our crowdfunding site, People’s Republic, who are kindly waiving their fees because they like us so much.
The UK Housing ‚ÄòCrisis’: Are You Profiting From It?
A blog from guest writer Zeph Auerbach asks – how much personal responsibility do we have for the housing crisis?
Now that the election is over, and Eurovision is a distant memory, London turns back to its favourite moan: the housing crisis. I frequently share this moan with my mixed group of friends: some renters, some homeowners, some letting out the odd room or flat. This conversation always seems to have an ‘in it together’ atmosphere, as we berate the property speculators, the oligarchs with vacant mansions, and most of all our government, which clearly sees its role as sustaining the rise in house prices (Help to Buy, pension reforms, reductions in stamp duty and so on).
But we ignore the elephant in the over-valued and under-sized room. This is an elephant which you’d see, if you looked hard enough, lurking in the corner of almost every Independent or Guardian article decrying the housing crisis. The elephant in the room is simply this: we find ourselves on opposing sides of this ‚Äòcrisis’ and for some of us this ‚Äòcrisis’ is something we profit from and sustain.
A mixed Summer Budget for renters
Having won the election, George Osborne used his first Budget of the parliament to rifle through the pockets of his vanquished political rivals. He abolished non-dom status for permanent UK residents and announced an increase in the minimum wage, dubbing it the Living Wage in the process – both more or less Labour election policies.
And he nicked a Green Party policy by cutting tax relief for landlords.
Is your MP a landlord? There’s a 1 in 5 chance
The first Register of MPs’ Interests of the new parliament was published last week. A comb through the data reveals that there are 126 residential landlords in Parliament. Landlords make up only 3% of the population but they are represented by 19% of the House of Commons (the same proportion of the UK population who rent privately).
Buy-to-let: Bad for renters, bad for first-time buyers – and now bad for everyone?
The buy-to-let ‚Äòboom’ that has occurred over the last twenty years, coinciding with the huge growth of the private rented sector more generally, has meant this kind of mortgage has been normalised within the British psyche, but without perhaps enough analysis of what it means for the economy and wider society.
Bills announced to reform private renting
Parliament has announced the 20 Private Member’s Bills that are being introduced today, and they include three on housing.
Karen Buck, MP for Westminster North, has introduced the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill, which will amend a law from the 1980s to ensure that rented properties meet certain standards. We think this is a huge opportunity to give tenants the protection they need from unscrupulous landlords and agents – and finally bring renting into the 21st century. Karen is a longtime campaigner on housing so we’ll work hard to support her as she takes the Bill through Parliament.