We're pleased to announce some big news at Generation Rent - with the award of three new grants, our campaign's future has been secured for the next three years and we have been able to expand the team with two new members of staff.

We also have three new board members, including a new chair, Ian Mulheirn.

The funding comes from the Oak Foundation, Trust for London and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and will support our work to strengthen security of tenure and develop the growing grassroots network of renter activists. The grants will also allow us to work on ensuring that new tenants’ rights and council powers to enforce safety standards in homes are implemented properly.

Our two new members of staff are:

• Hannah Slater, Policy & Public Affairs Manager. With four years of experience at Children England, including two years working on the 4in10 London Child Poverty Network programme, she brings excellent knowledge of the issues affecting some of society’s most vulnerable members. She replaces Seb Klier who has moved on to a role elsewhere.

• Jacob Mukherjee, Campaigns Officer. He set up and runs Demand the Impossible, a training course for young activists, coordinated the programme for The World Transformed in 2016, organised the Media Democracy Festival in 2018 and has been involved in various campaigns – from trade unionism to housing struggles – for the last fifteen years.

Dan Wilson Craw has been appointed Director, having been Interim Director since December 2016. He joined the organisation in March 2014 as Communications Manager, later adding Policy to his role. As interim director Dan has led Generation Rent’s work pushing the government to deliver the letting fees ban and strengthen security of tenure, while developing its strategy and securing long-term sources of funding.

The organisation’s board has also recruited three new members, including a new chair, Ian Mulheirn, who replaces Bernard Collier, who has stood down from the board after more than four years of service.

• Ian Mulheirn is the Director of Consulting of Oxford Economics. He was previously Director of the Social Market Foundation, leading it to win the Prospect Magazine UK Think Tank of the Year award in 2012, and before that an economist at HM Treasury. In 2016 Ian sat on the panel of the Redfern Review into the decline of home ownership.
• Jake White is Judicial Review Project Lead at the Equality and Human Rights Commission. His extensive experience spans the Department for Energy and Climate Change, Friends of the Earth and private practice. He has also provided pro bono advice to tenants at Waterloo Legal Advice Service.
• Nimisha-Darren Mirchly is Campaigns & Public Affairs Officer at a national charity. He runs the London Rent Cap campaign and is a volunteer adviser in Brent and Camden. This experience from the frontline of the housing crisis gives him valuable insight into the pressures facing private renters, complementing his expertise in housing advice, policy and campaigns.

Dan Wilson Craw said:

"These grants are a huge vote of confidence in Generation Rent’s work to date and the approach we are taking to make renting better. The new members of the staff team bring the experience we need to make the most of this generous funding. They will be supported by new board members who have valuable backgrounds in policy, voluntary sector leadership, the legal system and the front line of the housing crisis."

Commenting on his appointment, Ian Mulheirn said:

"It is a pivotal time to be joining Generation Rent. It has become clear in recent years that for millions of families, far from being a temporary arrangement, renting is now a long-term affair. Yet renters continue to be treated like second-class citizens, often putting up with unsafe homes, minimal security, and unfair rent hikes. Policymakers should stop obsessing about home ownership and start enabling people to make their private rented house a home. Generation Rent has a central role to play in showing the way forward."

Susie Dye, Grants Manager at Trust for London, said:

"Trust for London is glad to continue our support for the crucial work of Generation Rent, and to see the new staff and trustees joining the team. The private rented sector is now the largest tenure for low-income Londoners, providing a home for nearly 300,000 London children living in poverty in 2015/6. Yet too many of these homes are not good enough: evictions from the sector are an increasing source of homelessness, and more than one in four fails to meet the Government’s ‘Decent Homes’ standard. The campaigning work of Generation Rent to ensure that private rented sector homes provide security, and are affordable and fit for purpose is more important than ever."

Notes:

Nimisha-Darren is currently listed as Rebecca Ely on Companies House. He is in the process of changing his name.

The source of the figure for London children in poverty in private rented homes is from the London Poverty Profile