Renters Manifesto launched as tenant organisations demand parties tackle housing crisis
The biggest private tenant rights organisations in Britain have united to warn major parties that their home building plans will not fix the housing crisis if they do not set ambitious public housing targets and make urgent reforms to fix the ‘wild west’ rental sector.
A Renters Manifesto has been launched by Generation Rent, the New Economics Foundation, and tenant unions ACORN, London Renters Union and Greater Manchester Tenants Union.
As major parties set out their plans to build new homes as a key response to the housing crisis, the manifesto urges politicians to commit to ensuring that public funding for housing is directed solely towards an ambitious council housing building program that delivers 3.1 million homes over 20 years – in line with the Shelter report drawn up by a cross party commission in 2019.
The manifesto proposes major improvements to private renting including rent controls, an end to no-fault evictions, open-ended tenancies, tougher action on landlords who leave homes with unsafe disrepair, tenancy reforms and bringing privately owned homes into public ownership, among other measures.
In addition, the manifesto has been launched with private rents rising at the fastest rates in a decade, pushing record numbers of people into temporary accommodation. Half of working renters are only one paycheque away from losing their home.
The Renters Reform Bill promised by the Conservatives in their 2019 election manifesto as a way to reform renting and end no-fault evictions has still not been implemented. The Renters Manifesto sets out a bolder vision for the changes needed to tackle the housing crisis.
Conor O’Shea, a spokesperson for the group of organisations behind the manifesto, said: ‘It’s clear Britain needs more homes but simply supporting developers to build lots of expensive market-rate housing won’t bring housing costs down to affordable levels for the millions of people trapped in poverty by sky-high rents. What renters really need is an ambitious public housing building program that delivers 3.1 million council homes over 20 years and urgent action to fix the wild west private rented sector.
‘Britain’s 13 million renters still face the constant threat of eviction, record rent rises and unsafe conditions. Our rigged housing system is a key cause of worsening inequality.
‘From Newcastle to Newham, all of us deserve an affordable home where we can live a good life with dignity. Promises to ramp up house building will take many years to deliver and people stuck in the private rented sector in the here and now urgently need proper protections from unfair eviction, eye-watering rent rises and dangerous disrepair.
‘Politicians across all parties are not prioritising fixing the power imbalance between landlords and tenants. They must listen to renters or risk deepening the crisis further.’
Image: Harmen Jelle van Mourik
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