Generation Rent

New Campaign Campaigns

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  Extend the coronavirus evictions ban

  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

  45,202 of 50,000 Signatures

  Created by Nichola McClean
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  Stop landlords making families homeless

  Increasing numbers of us have no option but to rent from a private landlord. That shouldn’t stop us having a place we can call home. Landlords have the legal right to evict tenants with only two months’ warning and without giving a reason. Not all landlords exercise that right, but a family has no idea if their landlord will until they get the eviction notice – and there is nothing they can do about it. They might have been living in their home for twenty or more years, like Helen and Jason, a teacher and gardener who live with their two teenage daughters as valued members of their south London community. They have paid rent to their landlord for all that time and now face a no-fault eviction with no prospect of any security in the place they move to. This imbalance of power is severely disrupting the lives of thousands of families and playing havoc with the education of increasing numbers of children. It’s time the law started protecting tenants from the whims of unscrupulous landlords. Sometimes landlords need to take back their property, either to carry out refurbishment, or to sell it if they are unable to keep their business viable. In such cases, the landlord should be required to help rehouse the tenant, including a longer period of notice than two months. But landlords don’t even need to use the eviction process to force tenants to move. They can just raise the rent to an exorbitant level. The government needs to protect tenants from this as well, and should therefore bar landlords from raising the rent by more than inflation. There are 11 million private renters in England – and counting. None of them should have the rug pulled from under them.

  1,332 of 2,000 Signatures

  Created by Dan Wilson Craw
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  Stop renter evictions during the cost of living crisis!

  My name is Emma. I was evicted using a “no fault” Section 21 eviction along with my seven year old son, because my landlady decided she wanted me out of her property. I was only given only 2 months’ notice to pack up my life and find a new home for me and my son. It was impossible – so I was made homeless by my landlady’s decision. The ‘reason’ for us being evicted? She wanted a friend to move into the property – completely disregarding the fact that this was our home, the stability my son needed and my own poor health. Now, we’re living in temporary social housing. It’s unsuitable for my needs and those of my son but, with rents rising through the roof during this cost of living crisis, it’s impossible for me to find an affordable home in the private rental sector. I don’t want anyone else to experience what we’ve experienced. But this cost of living crisis means more and more renters are being kicked out of their homes as their bills and rents soar. Right now, landlords can raise the rent by hundreds of pounds per month, and the tenant has little option but to accept it. If the tenant tries to negotiate, the landlord can serve a Section 21 which can’t be challenged. If the tenant can’t pay the rent and gets into two months’ arrears or more, the landlord can serve a Section 8 notice which, again, can’t be challenged. This is why I reached out to Generation Rent to start this campaign. The government needs to act now to tackle the cost of living crisis and protect renters who are being forced to choose between staying on top of rent and putting food on the table. To choose between living and merely existing. Only if the government freezes rents and stops these types of evictions will millions of renters finally begin to get some sense of security during this cost of living crisis.

  39,131 of 40,000 Signatures

  Created by Emma Johnson
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  Stop unfair Covid evictions

  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.

  52,540 of 75,000 Signatures

  Created by Jacqueline
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  We need a COVID Rent debt fund

  Right now, an estimated 353,000 private renters are in arrears. Rent arrears have doubled since the beginning of Covid, and time is running out for the Government to prevent a homelessness crisis. Private renters are struggling because of the pandemic, and the Government has not offered enough enough support for those who have lost income. We need a Covid Rent Debt Fund to clear arrears, so that they cover average rents. Otherwise, thousands of renters will be extremely vulnerable to losing their homes, relying on their local councils to be rehoused, and risking homelessness, in just a couple of weeks’ time. Why we need a covid rent debt fund now. On 1 June the ban on bailiff evictions, which have been in place during the lockdowns, will be lifted. The courts have been processing evictions since September, which means that thousands of tenants will start being made homeless by mid-June. 60% of private renters had no savings at the start of the pandemic and a further 18% have had to use savings to pay their rent in the past year. How can these families and households afford to pay the rent, when they have experienced drops in their incomes, redundancies or a loss of business? The simple answer for many is they cannot. To make matters even worse, for the record number of people who now rely on Universal Credit because of the pandemic, many are now finding that benefits are not enough to cover the rent. People like Gareth from Worcestershire have had no choice but to fall into debt. He contacted us in April to tell us his story. “Since April 2020 my contracting business hit a full stop and I have been without income since that time… After 8 months I explained the situation to my rental agent who offered a slightly reduced monthly payment but still to be owed. So no benefit, just additional debt.” Renters are one of the most economically vulnerable groups in the country, and yet the Government still has not offered them more support. We need COVID rent debt fund.

  22,168 of 25,000 Signatures

  Created by Tilly Smith
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  Close the holiday let tax loophole

  I feel privileged to live in Plymouth. It's by the sea, has amazing beauty spots, Dartmoor is close by and the nightlife, pre-covid, was phenomenal. It is one of the UK's top tourist destinations. Unfortunately Plymouth's advantages can also be a disadvantage for its residents. I lived in my last flat for 5 years. The rent was affordable and it was close to the city centre – but was not in a great state of repair. When I complained to my landlord about the broken boiler and asked him to make repairs to his property, he threatened to evict me. One day a Section 21 notice arrived for me and the other tenants in the building, meaning we had to move out. The landlord said he was selling up because he did not want to be a landlord anymore. But a few months later, I discovered he had turned the building into an AirBnB. I found pictures online of my old flat which he had renovated and done up to perfection. My neighbours and I are not the only ones this has happened to. Plymouth has become a city of holiday lets. Cornwall has 62 homes to rent on Rightmove but 10,290 AirBnB listings. In one village in Wales, three quarters of the houses are holiday homes. Fewer homes available for residents mean higher rents, and people being priced out of their local areas in search of a home. That erodes local communities and starves local businesses of workers. The only people who benefit are the landlords. One cause of this is mortgage tax relief, which holiday-let landlords are entitled to but private rental landlords are not. It is saving holiday-let landlords potentially thousands of pounds every year, and actively dissuading them from renting their houses out to locals. After all, why rent to actual residents when the government has made it cheaper to let out holiday accommodation? We need a level playing field so that the local areas enjoy the right balance between holiday lets and homes people want to live in. By removing mortgage interest relief from holiday lets, more property owners will make their homes available to people who need somewhere to live. This will reduce rents, stop people being priced out, and make sure communities in tourist hotspots benefit.

  43,755 of 45,000 Signatures

  Created by Alex Macintyre
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  Homes not Hotels! Demand mandatory data sharing by short term lets companies

  It's been revealed that 1 in 50 homes in London are now holiday lets, meaning families and those working in the capital are being forced out of their homes and facing higher rents. Right now, if a home in London is rented out on the holiday let market for more than 90 days in the course of a year then the landlord is required to apply for planning permission to let it out to tourists. However, because there are loads of holiday let companies out there, landlords can bounce from Airbnb to HomeStay to Hostmaker and to FlipKey without regulation. Cash-strapped local councils don't have the staff or the data to track down landlords that are breaking the law. The rise of holiday lets is growing throughout England, and councils outside London have even fewer powers to do anything about it. The massive rise in companies like Airbnb and HomeStay means more evictions for long term tenants, less secure private rented housing available for Londoners and rents are being pushed up.

  3,941 of 4,000 Signatures

  Created by Generation Rent
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  Sadiq Khan– Ban Hostmaker ads on TFL

  Short term lets are spreading across London, taking homes away from local renters, preventing people from living in the communities where they grew up, and pushing up rents. Hostmaker’s distasteful tube ad is undermining the Mayor of London’s plans to make housing affordable in London, by encouraging landlords to kick out their tenants to create holiday homes. We want the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to ban Hostmaker ads from all Transport For London spaces Every day millions of people see these ads. Our Mayor-run transport infrastructure should be promoting organisations like Generation Rent and local renter unions, who are working to fix the housing crisis, rather than companies like Hostmaker who are actively making things worse.

  8,458 of 9,000 Signatures

  Created by Generation Rent
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  Support Selective Licensing in South Manchester

  This is important because South Manchester has one of the largest private renter populations in the whole of Greater Manchester. The impact of the explosive growth of renting on communities in South Manchester is largely negative, with dangerous properties being let out by absent landlords and unscrupulous letting agents, mostly targeting young professionals and students. The result of South Manchester's unregulated private rented sector, on a human level, is increased anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping, and reduction of families and long term residents living in the area. While landlords make millions in rental profits the impact on communities is devastating. Introducing a selective licensing scheme will: -Protect tenants, and communities from predatory landlords. -Improve enforcement against bad landlords – on homes in disrepair, pest infestations, overcrowding and illegal HMOs. -Bar landlords with criminal convictions or a history of poor property management. -Introduce requirements on gas, electrical and fire safety. -Provide a true picture of renting in South Manchester. Licensing WILL NOT increase rents, the licence fee is tiny.

  11 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Pollyanna Steiner