Generation Rent appoints new Director
Generation Rent announces today that director Alex Hilton is stepping down from his role. He will be leaving the organisation on Friday 15th May. Betsy Dillner, currently Community Campaigns Manager at Generation Rent, has been appointed Director in Alex’s place.
Want a decent place to live without robbing a bank?
Then ask your parliamentary candidates to support rent control
Looking for an affordable, stable place to live in London? Then you’ll have to move into the big house. Prison, that is.
Build to Rent: the answer to the housing crisis?
If the numbers add up for him next week, Ed Miliband will be Prime Minister and he will start attempting to reform the private rented sector with longer tenancies and rent stabilisation. We’ve already spotted holes in his plans that would undermine attempts to give renters better protections, but at least we support reform in principle. Most of the ire directed at Labour since they announced the policy is from those who oppose any form of regulation of rents.
Undermining unicorns: redefining affordable housing
Today’s Guardian reports on Labour plans to redefine the word “affordable”. It is a word that has caused much confusion and anger in housing circles since the current government reformed the grant system for social housing.
To be deemed affordable and thus qualify for state subsidy, new homes must be offered to tenants at a maximum of 80% of local market rents. To call this affordable betrays a staggering lack of awareness. In the real world, 80% is not much cheaper than the expensive rents set by the free market; it is not affordable to people on average incomes in expensive areas, let alone those on low incomes whom subsidised housing is supposed to prioritise.
Reforming private renting and getting it right
Over on Landlord Law Blog, Tessa Shepperson has offered three warnings to politicians who are trying to tackle housing policy on their election campaigns.
In a nutshell, she notes the importance of housing to people’s health, wellbeing and life chances, highlights the lack of real information about the private rented sector and the actors within it, and the need to ensure it is not a bad investment.
The blog is really raising concerns about Labour’s proposals for the private rented sector: essentially rent stabilisation and longer term tenancies. These are both policies that Generation Rent is calling for – though we think Labour should go further. Tessa makes valid points about them and they merit a response.
Why Labour’s rent cap won’t make your rent cheaper
Sounds a bit strange to say this but it’s absolutely true, however, it will make your tenure more secure.
Labour’s proposal is to cap rent increases at inflation for the first three years of a tenancy. This doesn’t give you the ability to plan your finances – because you don’t know what the inflation rates will be over the next three years – but it is a long way from wild west situation we have today.
We need a Robin Hood Tax for renters
It’s great that Labour is looking at cutting tax breaks for bad private sector landlords, but they should be targeting them all.
Homes for Britain
We’re deeply concerned about the lack of effectiveness of the Homes for Britain campaign. It has a £750,000 budget, the support of tons of passionate individuals and organisations, but it also has a lowest common denominator approach, where that denominator is the Residential Landlords Association.
Our experience of the RLA is that they campaign to make the housing market less fair for anyone who isn’t a landlord. We don’t criticise them for it – they’re doing the best for their members – but we think this is incompatible with any form of housing justice campaigning.
We think it’s no surprise that Homes for Britain has resisted calls to box in politicians to positive policy positions and to engage voters in effective influencing of parliamentary candidates.
So we’re asking members of the Homes for Britain coalition and others to also join an informal campaign network outside of Homes for Britain.
We’re going to draw together a network of organisations who believe every person deserves a decent and truly affordable home and that the housing crisis is measured in the lack of such access. We want this network to support urgent action to end this crisis far faster than in a generation.
If you want to be part of this network, please email us at [email protected]
An open letter to supporters of Homes for Britain
Today, we’re very sad to say that we have to withdraw our support for the Homes for Britain campaign. The title’s great but in reality we believe the strategy is so flawed that it has to date undermined the interests of people suffering the consequences of the housing crisis.
We’re not suggesting anyone else leaves the coalition, but we are asking signatories to work with us on a more effective, loose campaigning network, and to influence Homes for Britain so that it advocates solutions to the housing crisis that are significantly more timely than within a generation.
Our letter to Homes for Britain supporters is below, but of course we have no such list. We’d be grateful if you could share this letter by email and social media. Anyone organisation that wants to participate in delivering material change, whether that be by asking a network for support or by offering it, or even simply keeping abreast, should email us at [email protected]
Thanks so much,
Alex Hilton
Director, Generation Rent
Does Eric Pickles know there’s a housing crisis on?
Today’s Financial Times (registration required) reports that the Department for Communities and Local Government has blocked nearly 10,000 new homes from being built since the start of 2015.
What on earth is the government playing at?