Happy Renters Rights Day!
Today is the biggest day in Generation Rent’s 12 year history: Section 21 is no more and the biggest reforms to renting in nearly 40 years have come into force. […]
700,000 renters hit with unfair eviction notices during pandemic
One in 12 private renters has been given notice to move out without a reason since March 2020, a new poll by Survation reveals today.
The survey, commissioned by us, indicates that as many as 694,000 private tenants have been served with a Section 21 notice during the pandemic, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason.
The survey also found that one in three private renters fears that they will lose their home in the year ahead – which represents nearly 3 million adults in England.
Struggling renters are running out of options
At the end of August, courts were poised to reopen for eviction cases. Tenants who had been served an eviction notice during lockdown would have been left with no more protection from losing their home.
We continued to push the government to make good on its promise to keep people in their homes. One renter, Nichola, who faces eviction with her two daughters, spoke out and started a petition that got nearly 40,000 signatures. At the eleventh hour, the government announced a one-month extension of the evictions ban until 20th September. It also extended the notice that landlords must now give tenants to six months, as of 29 August.
But the respite will be short-lived. Tenants who have been asked to leave are still facing huge uncertainty. And because so many people have lost income in since the pandemic started, prospects are grim.
Once again, renters are vulnerable to revenge evictions
After six months of no evictions taking place at all, courts have reopened and landlords can resume the legal process of evicting their tenants.
Despite the government’s insistence that “the most egregious” cases will be prioritised, tenants can still be booted out without a reason, with no ability to appeal it and only six weeks’ grace if they face “extreme hardship”.
This is possible because of Section 21, the law that the government promised to abolish last year. Today it is exactly one year since the government closed it’s consultation on proposals to change the law, and we are still waiting for it to publish the Renters Reform Bill to make it all happen. Join our campaign to get Section 21 scrapped.
2018 takes renters closer to a fairer housing market
It’s our End Of Year round-up! 2018 has been an exciting year for the campaign. Through our work – with activists, renter unions and other groups – we are closer to a safer, fairer and more secure private rental market.
Longer Tenancies: Benefits, barriers and insights from the Government consultation
Last month’s announcement that the Government intends to abolish section 21 evictions and create open-ended tenancies rightly took the limelight, but alongside it was published the Government response to last summer’s longer tenancies consultation. As we all look ahead to the forthcoming reforms that will create a secure, open-ended tenancy, adjust legitimate grounds for eviction, and streamline the court process, it’s useful to dig back into the detail of the consultation responses to understand how tenants, landlords, and letting agents understand the barriers to and benefits of longer tenancies.
Here are some key take-aways from the consultation responses which should be borne in mind as the new open-ended tenancy and wider private rental market reforms are shaped.
Longer tenancies: busting some myths
Earlier this week we launched a campaign to improve security of tenure for private renters.
Achieving this is going to entail hacking through a thicket of special interests. Where it’s not the landlord replacing tenants every six months, it’s letting agents who want their annual renewal fee, or mortgage lenders demanding easy access to the property if the landlord does a runner.
Even deposit protection schemes – government-licensed organisations which supposedly exist to protect tenants – are throwing up roadblocks to reform by spreading misinformation.
Cabinet split over tenancy reform
On Wednesday, the Sun reported that 10 Downing Street and the Treasury are blocking moves to legislate for longer tenancies.
Although the recently closed consultation left open the question of making the new tenancy mandatory or voluntary, the same newspaper had previously reported that the Housing Secretary, James Brokenshire, wanted all tenants to get it.
That sets up a big internal government battle over tenants’ rights as the Conservative Party worries more and more about winning over younger voters.
Insecure tenancies drag down quality of life
With home ownership unaffordable and council housing unavailable, private renters are living longer in a tenure that wasn’t designed to provide long term homes. The constant threat of your landlord deciding to sell up or move back in means that you have none of the stability that a home is supposed to provide.
New polling from Survation, commissioned by us, exposes the impact this has on tenants’ lives. It shows that private renters are more anxious about the security of their home and this is holding them back from investing time in their home and their local community.
The decline of ownership, and meaningless means
A version of this article appeared on Inside Housing.
Last Tuesday, the Resolution Foundation dominated the headlines and airwaves with its report into levels of home ownership. Using figures from the Labour Force Survey, their big finding was that Greater Manchester saw the biggest fall in owner occupation from its peak at the turn of the century. It was a pattern seen across the north.
It’s no shock that the housing crisis is gripping the whole country. Our analysis of the 2011 census in 2014 found that ownership levels were already dropping in major urban areas. These figures are a bit more up to date.
While London and the South East have the most insane house prices, buying a home anywhere has become more difficult. This is because wages haven’t risen by much, and more people are in insecure employment, so it’s harder to save and to qualify for a mortgage. House prices became uncoupled from wages before the credit crunch, and didn’t revert to affordable levels after it.