Tenants’ Unions should become an Essential Part of Housing Policy

The Observer published an important article a few weeks ago by Tom Wall. Wall interviewed tenants whose landlords had (or attempted to) evicted them illegally between March and August, despite a ban for the duration of pandemic lockdown.

He also reported that Citizens Advice has seen a 95% increase in people asking for help with illegal evictions during a lockdown. Safer Renting, a charity in London, has reported illegal evictions almost tripling in parts of London. A group of men even injured a young tenant while forcibly and illegally evicting them from their house last month.

The problem of rogue landlords, although a term referring to landlords who break the law, exists on both sides of the law. Even when renters are protected by the law, they are often not good at arguing their case.

A report in 2018 found that a majority of students lose their deposit - most feel they’ve been cheated. Migrants also struggle in the Private Rented Sector (PRS); they often rely on agents or their employers to tell them what they can and cannot do (there is clear room for exploitation here).

On top of this, in a market that so obviously favours the supplier, renters are incentivised to look the other way. There is also ample evidence that, in this country, the law is on the side of the landlords.

All this means, that having a good landlord is more a luxury, rather than an expectation. Bad landlords not being punished encourages other landlords to start bending the rules themselves. Cracks appear in the system and a bad situation worsens.

Politicians talk about the housing crisis as a crisis for potential homeowners. The market does have a supple and demand problem, hence the need to build, especially ‘affordable housing’. But the main supply of affordable housing has been and still is social rents, pegged to local incomes. Most new build in the current system will be purchased by people with money or access to finance — i.e. landlords.

For housebuilding to rebalance the market by itself; it would have to be done on a scale unseen before. So, in the short term, at the very least, all renters can do is try and rebalance some of the power. Renters’ unions play an important role here. London Renters’ Union, Generation Rent, and the low-income union Acorn all provide support and, just as importantly, advice.

If masses of renters better know their right under current law, unscrupulous and rogue landlords lose some of their power to exploit. Both have seen had a noticeable increase in membership during COVID as renters need help and advice, and perhaps someone to show up if they are being physically evicted.

In the long run, these organisations can help reshape the market. Top-down change alone, even massive government investment, is always in danger of simply increasing leverage at the top. Grassroots organisations have the potential to meet progressive policy-makers halfway and create more lasting change and a fairer rented housing market.

Thanks for reading. I first published this article on my blog in August. To see the original version and read more pop over to Just Housing.