The fence has to go!

Right now, landlords can evict tenants without giving a reason, using Section 21 of the 1988 Housing Act. The Government pledged to end these unfair evictions in 2019, but have not delivered on this promise. Losing your home through no fault of your own is never easy, but during a pandemic, it can be dangerous. Last March, the Government promised us that no one would lose their homes because of Covid, but renters are currently being evicted because of section 21, even in lockdown. My name is Jacqueline. At the start of the pandemic I was working for a care agency out in the community, ensuring that vulnerable people were being properly and well cared for in their homes. The stress from the job, made worse by the PPE scandal, finally took its toll on my mental health in June 2020 and, on the orders of my GP, I was medically signed off from work. This led to me having to apply for Universal Credit whilst also looking for another job, in what was and still is, a very difficult time. I had to wait five weeks for my first Universal Credit payment which meant that I was immediately plunged into debt. I had a small amount of debt before, but had almost paid this off. The landlord knew about my situation but was not remotely interested. I was issued with a Section 21 ‘no fault’ eviction notice in August 2020. What followed was numerous emails from the letting agency, constantly wanting updates on when I would be leaving the property. The moving costs were too expensive and I could not find anywhere else for myself and my daughter to go. This meant we did not leave the house at the end of the eviction notice and the pressure from the agency grew even worse. Each time I received an email I just felt so harassed, as though a tremendous weight had been put on me. My landlord has now applied to the court to have me evicted. The law means they don’t even need a reason. I am now facing the reality of being made homeless and with nowhere to go. The Government promised that people like me would not lose their home due to covid-19. But that’s exactly what’s happening. It’s been almost two years since they promised to end unfair evictions, but I’m now facing homelessness in the middle of a pandemic. Everyone deserves a safe and secure home - that's why I reached out to Generation Rent - the Government must stop dragging their feet and deliver on their promise to end unfair evictions.

**Update 11 Feb 2020 - Robert Jenrick yesterday announced an extra £3.5 billion in funding to fix cladding in high-rise buildings, but this does not go nearly far enough. In a move that has angered many, no funding was announced for fixing other fire safety defects or for buildings under 18m. An estimated 70% of buildings with unsafe cladding also have other fire safety defects, meaning flat owners in high-rise buildings will still have to pay to fix these with average bills of £25,000. Only long-term loans were offered for buildings under 18m leaving them to pay all costs. This will saddle these flats with debts for decades, make them unsellable and could push flat owners into negative equity.** Up to 11 million flat owners in the UK are now potentially living in unsafe buildings. Since the fire at Grenfell in June 2017 in which 72 people lost their lives, it has become clear thousands of buildings across the UK are fire traps, due to flammable cladding and other serious fire safety defects. These buildings should never have been built like this. A culture of corner cutting from the construction industry, alongside regulatory failure are to blame. Flat owners are facing unimaginable bills in the tens of thousands of pounds - some over £100,000 each - to fix unsafe buildings, despite them not being at fault. Flat owners live in constant fear of fires in their buildings. Their homes are so dangerous many require 24/7 fire patrols known as “waking watch”. These can cost up to £15,000 a week, alongside flat owners seeing astronomical insurance hikes. Until their buildings are fixed, they cannot sell or remortgage. Hayley, a first-time buyer, bought her flat in Leeds at 27. At 28 she went bankrupt due to the crisis. Hayley will not be the only one to go bankrupt - thousands, if not millions, more will go bankrupt too. All this is seriously impacting mental health. “I struggle each day to keep myself alive due to the financial worries of ending up homeless and bankrupt.” [UK Cladding Action Group, Mental Health Survey] The government must protect all flat owners from the costs of fixing unsafe buildings, no matter the height of those buildings. The problems now stretch well beyond cladding to other defects like missing fire breaks and flammable insulation. The vast majority of flat owners are leaseholders, meaning they do not own their buildings, but just lease them. Archaic laws mean all costs can be passed onto them by the building owner. The government must make the money available upfront so buildings can be made safe quickly, and then work to recoup the money from those who were responsible. Millions of other flat owners cannot move home as they await surveys to know if their building is safe, seriously affecting the housing market. 86% of surveys to date have shown work is needed as buildings are unsafe - at cost to flat owners Funding to date has been entirely inadequate, with just a fraction of the estimated £15 billion needed having been made available. Flat owners must not be forced to pay, both financially and mentally, for others’ mistakes.

2020 demonstrated more than ever the importance of a safe and comfortable home. But too many people suffer in poor quality, even dangerous, houses. And with the government making it easier to build homes without proper local scrutiny, we could be looking at thousands of “slums of the future”. Liverpool’s local leaders are currently figuring out an ambitious long-term plan for housing right across the region. These decisions will play a huge role in the quality of housing for years to come - and could have a massive influence on the rest of the country too! That’s why we - the people of Liverpool and its surrounding areas - are demanding that any new housing meets eleven basic principles: 1. Be safe in relation to the risk of fire. 2. Have adequate space. 3. Have access to natural light. 4. Must meet people’s lifetime needs and be adaptable. 5. Be accessible and located in accessible environments. 6. Prioritise walkable services and sustainable transport. 7. Be built in line with the Climate Change Act 2008. 8. Have access to green space and play areas that are accessible to all. 9. Be resilient to a changing climate. 10. Be secure and meet design standards which reduce and prevent crime. 11. Meet standards to eradicate noise pollution. The eleven principles have been developed by the TCPA (Town and Country Planning Association) as part of their Healthy Homes Campaign. You can read more about them here: https://www.tcpa.org.uk/healthy-homes-act

Kingspan, an Irish company based in Cavan, manufactured Grenfell Tower’s combustible insulation. During the Grenfell Inquiry into the tower block fire which killed 72 people in 2017, a former executive said that the firm was involved in a “deliberate and calculated deceit”, which involved the product, which failed several full-scale fire tests, but was being sold on the basis of earlier tests of a different, less combustible version of the product. The inquiry has also heard that Kingspan rigged tests and hired lobbyists after the disaster to try to persuade MPs that rival non-combustible products might be no less dangerous. Ulster Rugby should play no part in whitewashing Kingspan's image and must terminate it's sponsorship relationship and rename the stadium.

The home we are currently living in was originally my Nan and Grandads, my mum and her siblings where brought up in this house and sadly when my nan and grandad passed away the house became my uncles (Carl) who was in ill health, so i decided the best thing to do would move in with him to help with keeping the house and himself in good form. Unfortunately in May this year my uncle was diagnosed with terminal cancer for which he received no treatment due to COVID 19. in August this year my uncle sadly lost his battle with cancer. We are now having to fight for the family home as Cobalt are not willing to pass this house down to me. Cobalt have said i couldn't have the house as there is no proof of me living there IE bills in my name. At the time this was not the top of my priority list i was staying caring for my uncle and all bills was in Carl's name. I have been staying at the family home since May 2018 with Carl and as far as both Carl and i was aware the bills had to be in the tenants name and Cobalt classed me as a family member. Going forward me and my family don't want to lose this home as there are so many memories of people who are really close to me and everyone else. As you all can understand i am absolutely devastated of the loss of my uncle Carl. I couldn't begin to imagine the further heartache i will endure by losing the home as this is the last thing we have left to help us feel close to them.

Government plans will allow communal night shelters for people experiencing homelessness to reopen this winter. But we know this isn’t safe - these shelters were shut down in March as they were deemed unsafe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The government’s plans could force people to choose between freezing on the street or going to a shelter where they could catch Covid-19. Both options needlessly put lives at risk. Major health and homelessness organisations, like Crisis, have spoken out against the plan - they say the government isn't going far enough to protect people and keep them safely off the streets this winter. The government has previously committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and ending it by 2027. Winter and COVID-19 present a dangerous emergency. They must do everything possible to protect homeless people this winter.

If you are a nurse, care worker or retail worker in Monmouthshire then you probably can't afford to live here. Unless you are in priority need you probably won't get social housing, and with around 3000 households on the waiting list you'll be advised to rent privately. With soaring local rents and short term tenancies this isn't a good basis for making a life or for raising a family. In 2018, County Councillor Dimitri Batrouni, leader of the Labour group on Monmouthshire County Council, put forward a practical plan for more social rented homes in Monmouthshire, using some of the land holdings that the Council and other public bodies own. The plan was agreed by all parties, including the ruling Conservative group, who then quietly shelved it. In the wake of Covid 19 we believe that the people we all rely on, our heroic key workers, and also the many disabled and vulnerable local people, deserve better. Everyone needs a secure, low carbon, affordable home. They must not continue to be pushed out of the area where they work and belong by inflated house prices. The County Council may say that they have a long term plan for private developers to build affordable housing through planning gain, but we've all seen those promises watered down and not delivered, and with the current recession and uncertainty those homes may never be built. The Council may also say they no longer have the money, and with local authority budgets under pressure we know that it will be hard to find. But with determination, and the support of the Welsh Government, we believe that the affordable, low carbon, secure rented homes the county needs can be delivered, creating local construction jobs in the process. If you agree, sign our petition, and please share it on social media. For more information go to www.h4mh.org.uk or to get involved email [email protected]. We want to hear your story.

Urgent action needed before the current ban ends on Monday! My name is Nichola. I have lived in my home in south London with my daughters for ten years. In May, my landlord gave me a Section 21 no-fault eviction notice, giving us three months to move out. We are devastated. I was furloughed for a while and receive housing benefit, but have managed to keep on top of rent. Sadly this hasn’t been good enough for my landlord who hasn’t given me a reason – they just want me out. The government has suspended most evictions over Christmas but they lifted this in September, so we have no option but to find alternative accommodation. But moving isn’t an option. Benefits would only get me a 1 bedroom flat, which is unacceptable with two girls, one of whom is about to start her GCSEs. And I can’t move away from my mother, who’s recovering from a stroke, or my daughters’ father. The local council can’t help – they’ve just sent us to letting agents who are demanding an above average income and the details of someone who earns more than £50,000 to guarantee the rent. Single-earner households are excluded from the rental market. And I’m a key worker, so I’m one of the lucky ones. There are thousands of others who have always done the right thing but the government has shut down their workplace, and hasn’t provided enough support to cover the rent. They too face homelessness when the courts open back up after the government’s Christmas truce. I spoke to Generation Rent about my experience - they estimate that homelessness could treble as a result of coronavirus. While the latest surge of infections threatens to overwhelm the NHS, the government must do all it can to keep people in their homes. He’s running out of time to keep that promise and keep us in our homes with He needs to act now to give renters and the wider public the protection we need during the pandemic

The government just unveiled its “once in a generation” plan for housing - and and it’s a huge blow to nurses, teachers and anyone struggling to pay sky high rent, or unable to find a home they can afford. Under the proposals, property developers who don't build any affordable housing on some sites, will continue to get away with also not having to chip in to help councils build affordable homes elsewhere. A whole generation of people are being locked out of decent housing, and housing charity Shelter has said that social housing “could face extinction” if these proposals are approved. We can’t let that happen. These plans aren’t set in stone - yet. The government wants to hear from us before it makes any firm decisions. It’s the perfect opportunity to tell them - loudly and clearly - how disastrous this could be for millions of people struggling to find affordable housing.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed how deeply broken Scotland’s housing system is. Before the pandemic, tenants were already living paycheck-to-paycheck with exploitative and unaffordable rents. Because of coronavirus, many workers have lost their jobs or faced reduced incomes and have been unable to pay rent altogether. While some people have been lucky enough to quarantine in comfortable, warm, spacious homes -- far too many renters have had to see out the pandemic in cramped, dangerously poor-quality housing. So far, the Scottish Government has been woefully inadequate in its support for tenants, doing little more than introducing a temporary ban on evictions while home-owners and landlords have benefitted from mortgage freezes and millions in interest-free loans from the Scottish Government. We are now nearing the end of the eviction-ban, and as things stand, tens of thousands of people who have not been able to afford their rents are now shouldered with crushing debt burdens. This will cause an unprecedented wave of evictions across the country and will only further prolong this health crisis. It can’t be allowed to happen. That’s why we are demanding that the Scottish Government immediately: 1) Extend the evictions-ban for all tenants who have fallen into rent arrears as a result of the pandemic 2) Introduce emergency support measures to stop tenants facing enormous and unaffordable debt burdens from unpaid rent And in the long-term: 3) Implement rent controls to protect tenants from sky-high rents and punitive increases, as well as to guarantee that landlords can’t take advantage of new support measures for tenants by increasing rents 4) Build more social housing that is healthy, safe, affordable, and in quantities that will meet everyone’s needs

DAMAGE TO HOMES, ROADS, FINANCIAL LOSS, INJURY, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS. PERSONS LOSS OF USE OF THEIR HOME & POSSESSIONS UNECCASSAIRLY.