Safe Homes
What’s the problem?
One in seven private rented homes are unsafe. That could mean toxic levels of mould or faulty electrics causing a fire hazard. The Grenfell Fire is a horrifying reminder of what living in an unsafe home can really mean.
What can we do?
If your home is in disrepair and your landlord isn’t listening then you can ask your council to inspect your home or take your landlord to court to demand repairs. For lots of renters, this just isn’t realistic. Whether it’s lack of money or political will, councils aren’t enforcing safety standards in homes.
Generation Rent is holding councils to account. For the past two years, we’ve been asking councils to let us know how many ‘enforcement notices’ they have sent out to private landlords asking them to make repairs. You can see some of our data here and in The Guardian here
Our data show that only a handful of councils are reliably providing tenants with this protection. If councils aren’t routinely using their powers then tenants will continue to be cowed into silence.
Demand a Queens Speech on Housing
The dust is settling after the General Election and the government finds itself with a new ministerial team and a precarious majority. None of the manifestos offered a coherent solution to the housing crisis, but Generation Rent is committed to making it a priority for the new government.
We have offered them a strategy which will jump-start the house building industry and create a fair deal for people renting. Our “Queen’s Speech on housing” is sponsored by CWU Youth, the youth network of the CWU Trade Union.
The housing crisis cannot be fixed without proper leadership, effective regulation, a commitment to wean the country off rising house prices and investment in public housing. Our demands include a position of Secretary of State for Housing, protections for tenants when their landlord wants to sell the property, and a system of rent control and tax on landlords which would raise money for a public house building programme.
Our proposals are published as a poll from Survation finds that 63% of private renters want to leave private renting in the next five years but only a third of those think it’s likely to happen. That means that out of the UK’s 4.75m private renter households, 1.95m find themselves stuck in an unsuitable tenure.
Amazing job opportunity at the National CLT Network
We want to tell you about an amazing job opportunity for a Programme Manager that has just come up over at our friends, the National Community Land Trust Network.
We’ve been in the news! Here’s the reaction to the Government’s announcement on section 21
It’s been quite a week since the government announced that they will ban Section 21 evictions, which allows Landlords to evict tenants for no reason.
Renters and campaigners from the coalition took to the airwaves to celebrate this important victory. We would like to give special thanks to Alicia, Simon, Eva and Kirsty who talked about their section 21 experiences.
“Tenants Rights victory”
The story made the front page of the national Guardian newspaper who hailed it as a “Tenants Rights Victory”. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/15/short-notice-evictions-face-axe-in-tenant-rights-victory
The Financial Times covered the story with the headline that Landlords were facing curbs. https://www.ft.com/content/6d306a50-5d2d-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40
Meanwhile the independent called it a major reversal of a policy implemented during Margaret Thatcher’s time in Downing Street https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-no-fault-eviction-powers-landlords-private-rental-thatcher-policy-a8869676.html
Victory! Government pledges to scrap Section 21
The End Unfair Evictions coalition is celebrating a campaign victory today as the government announced its plans to abolish “no-fault evictions” under Section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act and introduce open-ended tenancies for private renters in England.
At present Section 21 allows landlords to evict tenants without giving a reason, making possible revenge evictions, where renters lose their homes after asking for repairs or making complaints. Since 2015, some 140,000 tenants have been victims of Section 21 revenge evictions. Section 21 is the leading cause of homelessness in England.
Here’s how the coalition partners reacted…
“Deposit-free” products: definitely not free and less protection for renters.
“Deposit-free” schemes on the market can cost as much as £864 for a two year tenancy in non-refundable costs to tenants, new product analysis and cost comparison by Generation Rent shows. And if the landlord makes a claim for deductions at the end of the tenancy, that figure can rise much higher.
Fareham Unison back End Section 21
Fareham Unison have become the first trade union branch in the country to back the End Section 21 campaign.
At an AGM of Fareham Unison members, there was a unanimous vote to support the campaign and to call on Regional Officers with Unison to put their weight behind the campaign too.
If you’re a member of a union branch, local political party or other membership organisation and want to support the campaign you can find our model motion here.
Tenants Union UK join the coalition!
We are delighted to announce that Tenants Union UK have officially joined the campaign to abolish section 21.
Founded in 2016, Tenants Union UK are a membership organisation, that “build powerful relationships between renters and tenants and create housing justice through education, advocacy, leadership development and local organising”.
Sign up for our local elections campaign
In less than 9 weeks time voters will be going to the polls to elect their local councillor. These elected representatives get a say in how local services are ran and licensing requirements for the local private rented sector. We want to make sure that local councillors know that private renters in their area want to abolish section 21.
That’s why across the country we will be running local campaigns to let candidates of all parties know how we feel. We will be writing to all candidates, asking questions at local husting events and speaking to voters in our high streets to get the message out there.
More local councils call on government to #EndSection21
As 2018 draws to a close, the pressure on government to scrap Section 21 no-fault evictions continues to grow.