Shiv Malik
Shiv joined the board in December 2016. A former investigative correspondent at the Guardian, he is the co-author of 2010’s cult book Jilted Generation; How Britain has Bankrupted its Youth, and co-founded the Intergenerational Foundation. He has contributed to several publications on intergenerational justice and is currently writing a book on economics in a post-globalised world.
Professional management
The private rented sector needs reorganisation. As private renting has grown, there are now a significant number of non-professional landlords with small portfolios, letting out their properties alongside another job. Although voluntary accreditation schemes exist, the uptake remains small and so there is no way for tenants to guarantee that their landlord is a good one. The rise of the PRS has also seen an increase in letting agents across the country, with virtually no regulation of the sector and huge fees paid by tenants, out of proportion to the services offered.
A national register of landlords and the mandatory licensing of letting agents would mean that only professional and scrupulous people could operate in the sector and they would be accountable to tenants. It would also allow government to communicate effectively with the sector and inform policy more accurately. Furthermore, local authorities would then be able to target their resources on criminal landlords, with minimal burden on the better landlords. While several local authorities have introduced landlord licensing in their areas, the last government made it harder to do so.
The previous government did make it mandatory for letting agents to be part of a redress scheme. We are monitoring the effectiveness of these schemes in reducing poor practice and rip-offs in the sector. The government has also forced landlords and agents to carry out checks on the immigration status of would-be tenants. This is a terrible policy that will raise costs and risks breeding discrimination against anyone who doesn’t sound or appear British.
Decent living conditions
Three in ten privately rented homes are considered “non-decent” and one in six are physically unsafe – even though councils have a legal obligation to correct hazards in the home.
This is considerably higher than for other forms of tenure and points to a sector-wide problem. Although the law requires landlords to ensure their properties are free from major hazards, we need to go further than that and ensure that there are national minimum standards for any property being rented in the private sector. This could be done by extending the Decent Homes Standard to private rentals and making it mandatory for all new rental contracts. We also need checks and enforcement, such as mandatory periodic inspection and testing of electrical installations and appliances in all types of privately rented homes.
In March 2015 the coalition limited the use of no-fault evictions when landlords haven’t made repairs that the local council has ordered – revenge evictions – through the Deregulation Act.
Read more of our proposals for improving conditions in our Queens Speech for Housing.
Security of tenure
Too many renters in the private sector are worried about their security. Contracts of 6 months to a year are the industry norm and no-fault evictions mean that those outside of a fixed-term agreement face even greater uncertainty about their living situation. As house prices rise, more landlords decide to evict their tenants.
Whereas in the past renting was seen as a temporary option mainly for young people, before they later bought a home, it has now become a long-term reality for people across the population – from families to pensioners, low-income households to professionals. Tenants need security, to build their lives in one place and without the threat of eviction for no reason. Generation Rent is campaigning to change the culture, making long-term tenancies much more available and allowing those who want it to settle in their communities and plan their futures without fear of sudden upheaval or uncertainty about where they will live next year.
In March 2015 we succeeded – along with Shelter, GMB Young London, and other campaign groups – in persuading Parliament to ban retaliatory evictions in the Deregulation Act.
The Scottish government has reformed private tenancies to end fixed-term agreements – they will only end if the tenant decides or the landlord can meet certain conditions. We want the Westminster government to go even further by forcing landlords who evict blameless tenants to compensate them for the cost of moving. READ MORE
Affordability
High rents prevent tenants from enjoying the quality of life they would have in other tenures. On top of this, speculation by landlords in the property market has made it harder for renters to escape high rents, and also takes investment out of productive parts of the economy that might otherwise build homes or create jobs.
While the government has reformed the tax system to discourage speculation, there remains an urgent need for investment in house building that would reduce private rents and ensure that more homes are affordable to people on low incomes.
We have proposed a number of initiatives that could help build affordable homes and fund them:
- A secondary housing market where new homes are sold at cost price on the condition that they become part of a regulated market of controlled rents and limited house price increases.
- A levy on landlords to recoup the billions of pounds of housing benefit they receive. This money could then fund new social homes.
- Local flexible rent caps where landlords can opt out as long as they pay some of their rent charged above the cap into a local social housing fund.
Alongside rents, other housing-related costs such as energy bills add to the burden on many renters. Fuel poverty affects 1 in 5 private renters – that means that the cost of heating their home adequately would pull them below the poverty line. The most effective way of combating fuel poverty is to make energy efficiency improvements to homes typically occupied by those on low incomes, many of whom are in the private rented sector. Generation Rent works with the End Fuel Poverty Coalition to campaign for government action on this.
The cost of moving can also be made cheaper. Banning letting agent fees to tenants would lower the cost of moving, making the lettings market more efficient and forcing agents to compete for landlords’ business instead of creaming off fees from captured tenants. (READ MORE)
Holly Patton
Holly joined the board in April 2015. She brings experience of fundraising from her role as Legacy Marketing Manager with British Heart Foundation.
Sam Smethers
Sam Smethers has been the Chief Executive of Grandparents Plus, the national charity which champions the vital role of grandparents and the wider family in children’s lives, since 2008. She was previously Director of Public Affairs of the Equal Opportunities Commission and also has experience as a communications consultant and eight years of working in Parliament. Sam is a former trustee of Gingerbread and the Fawcett Society. She has four children and was brought up by her grandparents.
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]
Private renters to get Right to Buy
The Conservatives’ controversial Right to Buy policy will be extended to private renters, according to leaked plans from the Tory manifesto. That means private renters will have the right to buy their own home after living there for five years.
This is a big move from the Conservatives, who have been scrambling around for a vote-winning policy that will help the thwarted first-time buyer, with Help to Buy loans, Rent to Buy, and the latest Help to Buy ISA. But this policy – a reboot of the popular sell-off of council homes in the 80s – actually takes on the landlords.
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