Renting must stop failing renters in England

Parting words from our outgoing Head of Campaigns Conor O’Shea
Six things renters need from the Chancellor tomorrow

Rachel Reeves has an opportunity to announce measures around tax, benefits and investment that would make renting more affordable
Half of renters feel ripped off
Nearly half of private renters feel they have been ripped off by their landlord or letting agent, according to a poll commissioned by Ocean Finance (reported by Mortgage Introducer).
The biggest problem, cited by around half of unhappy renters, was the delay – or, indeed, complete failure – to get repairs carried out. This was followed by withholding of the deposit at the end of the tenancy (37%), or making unreasonable deductions from it (25%). Unreasonable rent rises and rip-off admin fees at the start of the tenancy affected around 23% of respondents.
These findings support work Generation Rent is already doing to improve the lives of renters. Only yesterday we published a consultation on new ways to help tenants recover their deposits.
We are also calling on politicians to strengthen tenants’ rights when requesting repairs by protecting them from revenge evictions. Our proposals for a long term tenancy would ensure that landlords couldn’t impose inflation-busting rent increases, while we argue that letting agents – who work for landlords – should not be able to pass on fees to tenants. Further information is in our Renters Manifesto.
17 Reasons Your Rent Is Too High
If you’ve ever wondered why renting is so expensive, we’ve compiled a handy list and published it on Buzzfeed.
Click here to see all 17 reasons.
It never rains…
There has been a flurry of bad news for renters over the past few days.
- According to Homelet, rents have risen by 8.2% in the past year.
- One in five Londoners has no disposable income at the end of the month, according to the Centre for London, which has coined the term “Endies” in their report, “Hollow Promise”.
- Shelter has found that the Bank of Mum and Dad is shelling out £23,000 on average to help their kids into a home of their own.
- The National Housing Federation has found that a first time buyer today has to raise a deposit 10 times bigger than their parents would have – after taking inflation into account.
- And this morning, it’s the turn of the Office for National Statistics to tell us that house prices have jumped 13.5% for first time buyers in the past year. That’s another £5000 to find this past year alone – and the picture is even worse in London.
Politicians are waking up to the fact that the 9 million private renters being shut out of home ownership and social housing need a stable, decent and affordable home. Only last week the government announced its support for a Bill to end revenge evictions.
But we need to keep the pressure on – both to reform private renting and build more genuinely affordable homes. To do that we need your voice – so please sign up to the campaign.