Ben Reeve Lewis attends Rent Freedom Day, despite having a raging temperature …
Wednesday saw the first major event of Generation Rent. Their ‘Rent freedom day’ held at Central Hall Westminster.
I attended along with a few other counterparts from local authorities although the cold I am currently suffering from saw me leaving before we all marched on the House of Commons to hurl abuse so I don’t know how that went.
Keynote speaker and heretical ideas
Key note speaker for the day was the Guardian’s Owen Jones, who described himself as looking like a ‘Cocky 12 year old who had just finished his paper-round” and he certainly does.
His speech worked around the twin notions of heretical ideas, in this case calling for rent control and the value of persistent action, citing the Chartists, Suffragettes and Tollpuddle Martyrs, pointing out quite rightly that we have it far easier than they did, not being under any threat of 7 years in Australia for speaking our mind.
Having said that, Central Hall was so bloody cold I think we would have all welcomed deportation for a bit of heat. 7 years in the colonies definitely being no punishment at all in the 21st century.
You need to shout
Joking aside it was quite heartening to be reminded that the establishment isn’t going to increase tenant security or finances unless people shout loudly and insistently enough for the powers that be to feel embarrassed enough to give in and I’m told there are 5 million of us PRS renters, all with an ‘X’ to put in a box in less than 100 days time
“Power concedes nothing without a demand”, said 19th century black civil rights activist Frederick Douglas as the convincing 12 year old informed everyone.
The last tin of beans problem
There were several stands in the lobby for a variety of tenants groups, ‘Priced out’, the newly formed ‘Renters Rights London’ in the able hands of Rosie Walker, and a new phone app called ‘Splitable’ for housemates to use and hopefully take arguments out of sharing rent, kitty’s and wot not.
Having once been a house sharer I asked the guy on the stand if it had a function that would prevent the eternal problem of someone stealing your last tin of beans. Sadly it does not but the idea is a useful one and worth keeping an eye on.
Lammy gets radical
I attended the main debate, again in the Tundra of the main hall, flanked by a Penguin or two, on the topic of rent control itself, chaired by the New Statesman’s John Elledge with a panel consisting of ‘38 degrees’ activist Becky Ely, Alan Ward and Mark Littlewood of the RLA and mercifully Tottenham MP and London Mayoral hopeful David Lammy.
I say mercifully because originally it was meant to be Dianne Abbott, a facile human being who I loathe.
Mind you, despite accusing Labour of not being radical enough Lammy announced that his manifesto wanted rent increases limited to no more than 10% over two years, which is more than my landlords have ever raised the rent on me so I shall consider carefully who I vote for in the London elections next year. Radical indeed!!!
The RLA go into the Lions Den
Hats off to Alan and Mark for walking into the Lions den. They were on a hiding to nothing from the get-go. I’ve done it myself the other way around, having done presentations to property investors. You feel like you have a cluster of red laser target-sight dots all over you while you stand at the lectern.
They put their case well enough but what failed to win over an admittedly partisan crowd was to my mind the same mistake made by champions of Britain staying in the EU when they offer up their arguments. They only ever talk about the advantages from the perspective of business and investment, and tenants as the ultimate beneficiaries of the mythical trickle down effect of an unencumbered free market.
None of which holds any cache for tenants paying out 65% of their take home pay on uncontrolled London rents. Profits at the top just don’t trickle down to those at the bottom.
Never the twain shall meet …
it’s an old myth that needs dispelling and the delegates were having none of it, so you quickly realise, as I do on some of the debates I get embroiled with on Landlord Law Blog, that the twain will never really meet. Landlords and tenants live in different worlds with different vested interests.
While landlord organisations speak from the point of protecting their investments (understandably) Generation Renters (understandably) want to know how long their income can keep absorbing the rent increases until they are forced to move and reasoning by way of percentages, yields and loan to value ratios hold no relevance for tenants whatsoever. Sorry Alan and Mark.
I kept sticking my hand up for a microphone but each time it disappeared into the forest of angry sleeves, once the RLA reps got going.
Ben’s Unanswered Question:
What I was going to ask was this “Given the homelessness office where I am based has seen the weekly footfall of homelessness applicants rise from 350 – 500 a week during the last 18 months, the majority of them being homeless because rents are well out of their reach, did the panel think that uncontrolled rents were morally fair, given not only the human misery but also the financial costs to everyone, including landlords, of the millions of pounds it costs to rehouse people who are priced out of the market?”
Other sessions that I didn’t manage to attend were held on alternative housing supply models, trade unions & housing justice and tenants rights.
All of which clashed with my need to go home and lay down.
Not exactly the stamina and commitment of Emmeline Pankhurst.
But at least I did show up, despite a temperature. What a brave man-flu activist I am.
“You need to shout”
That sums it up for me.
It is a vocal minority shouting the loudest for their own interests.
They don’t represent the country’s renters.
Out of around 10 million renters, how many turned up?
A couple of hundred perhaps.
The London centric problems being shouted about have little bearing on places like this for example;
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/empty-feeling/7008061.article
“The villages of Horden and Blackhall are near the beautiful Durham coastline, so why are some homes there so hard to let?”
Any national changes should be for the benefit of the majority, not for those that shout the loudest.
“Never the twain shall meet”
I disagree, in the context you use it.
As in the real meaning of Kipling’s full quote, the majority can and do meet.
Tenants are already over 30 per cent of the population and will soon reach 50 per cent at current rates. It is already estimated that they can influence an election result in 80 seats.
Britsh tenancy laws are the worst in Europe, and with Britain becoming ever more integrated into the EU, how long do you think you can resist the introduction of European-style tenancy laws in Britain?
Perhaps I had better mention here that I do the headers so Ben should not be blamed for them.
Their main function is to break the page up so it is easier to read (nothing more intimidating online that a block of uninterrupted text). I put whatever comes into my head when I read it …
HB I am in the process of writing a piece on London as a special case for renting distinct from the rest of the UK> I’m well aware that Peckham has specific differences to the rental market on the Durham Coast.
I live and work in London so it is bound to my central to my thinking but for the last 16 years I have trained housing staff from Cornwall to Newcastle and I know that there are regional variations.
As to your notion of a vocal minority shouting loud. Thank god we have them, and not just in housing matters.Very little would change in our society if people didnt shout loudly. I repeat Frederick Douglas’s words of experience “Power concedes nothing without a demand”.
The fact that the demand may be unpalatable to others is neither here nor there, unless you are the person upon whom the demands are being made, in which case the ‘demanders’…if there is such a word, are heretical villains, juvenile in intent and myopic in vision.
History is full of such people.
There was a time when Israel’s first president was public enemy number one to the British government, a terrorist no less.
Generation Rent aint even in that ballpark but they are tapping into a certain pulse of 5 million of the population, something Ed Moribund is signally failing to do.
And your fuller reworking of ‘Never the twain?’ I dont know what Kipling’s intention was but after 25 years of trying to build bridges between landlords and tenants. Negotiating in aggressive disputes on doorsteps, trying to balance the interests and views of both parties. Writing articles in national newspapers that end up with me being called a Trotskyite by landlords and a Judas by tenants I have actually come to the firm opinion that the Twain cannot meet…..or at least if it can it will take better people than me to pull it off.
This post both upsets me and makes me slightly cheerful in equal measures. Part of me is pleased that a scarily-growing generation of renters are making their voice heard that rents in London and surrounding commuter belt boroughs are spiralling out of control.
The other part of me is upset knowing that, ultimately, this will come to nothing. It has been this way for a while, and it seems unlikely things are to change – especially when things such as the incredibly important “revenge eviction” bill was chucked out of parliament; it’s quite obvious no one cares how renters feel if there is money to be made from them.
@Chris, there has been (05 Feb 2015) some progress on retaliatory eviction. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/stronger-support-against-rogue-landlords The Nearly Legal blog disects it further.
@Ben, you’ve summed it up again. But the tide will turn eventually; it has to. If i may plagiarise the following comment that I read on Facebook:
“Although we are encouraged to live in an ‘I’m alright Jack, dog eat dog’ culture, you need to be an idiot not to see the damage it is doing to both the economy and society and the great resentment growing between different sections of society. We will not pull the majority out of their personal recession and fall in living standards until we start to treat everyone with dignity again. I do not choose my friends based on their ability to afford or rent a house, but on whether they are good people and I wish for all good people to have a place in society, otherwise society ceases to exist.”
There is a saying that the only people who like change are wet babies :)
I think its a bit of an ‘Animal Farm’ situation really.
Under the old Rent Act it was definitely the tenants who were walking on two legs. For the past 25 years it has been the landlords and with that spot-on Orwellian metaphor in mind I see no point in simply creating another see saw that the other side can gloat over.
Maya Angelou talked about much civil rights activism being about calling for change when what they really wanted was ‘Ex-change’…..to simply reverse the position.
What we need is an Holistic approach to housing across the board where fairness is the guiding principle for all involved in it.
The trouble is our current housing system is driven by nothing other than money and in pursuing that aim we have lost notions of community, homes, stability etc. I dont blame landlords for that, I blame rudderless political leaders who have the vision of a lettuce.
We have been here before in the Dickensian past and its no surprise that we are here again. Plus ca Change and all that but for my part, despite HB Welcome’s scorn of the loudness of vocal minorities I am proud to include my small contribution in that group.
I say that with respect and liking for HB Welcome as a witty and articulate sparring partner and I would defend his right to disagree with me throughout.
Ah “sparring” sounds so harmless doesn’t it. The current housing situation is anything but that though. It’s ruining people’s lives. Quite what calls for the wit eludes me Ben? I can only assume you meant that in the “laugh at” way.
No Rent Rebel I most certainly didnt.
I am both a London tenant who pays 65% of his take home pay to keep a roof over his head and a rogue landlrod inefrocement officer who sees the worst landlord behaviour you can imagine.
This week I interviewed a 7 months pregnant tenant who complained about having no water supply for three years and when we got onto the landlord about this he went to the property and karate kicked her 7 times, dragging her down the stairs by her hair.
Rest assured every officer involved is busting a gut to take this guy down but also I’ve seen landlords have their properties completely trashed by nutters, had their identities stolen by their tenants and stabbed & assaulted.
It isnt a simplistic case of landlord greedy and evil and tenant poor burdened victim.
This is what I am trying to get away from, the polarised positions. It helps nobody.
You said yourself above “I wish for all good people to have a place in society, otherwise society ceases to exist” and that is absolutely spot on the money.
There is a place for landlords and tenants but the system as it has stood for the past 25 years is no longer fair and damages communities in some areas. I dont want to batter landlords into submission but to encourage them to work for a fairer system that protects all.
If landlords or their representatives such as the RLA and NLA refuse to meet in the middle then we do have to look towrds our colective voice to call for change.
The danger at this point in time is that with an election looming politicians are as usual simply scrabbling around for vote winning policies without considering whether or not they are sustainable.
That much was evident from David Lammy’s less than convincing grandstanding performance on Wednesday.
I was listening to an interview with playwright David Hare in the week and he said the frustrating thing is that the coalition is an open goal at the moment that Milliband is failing to put the ball into.
Labour policies for private tenants is all over the place and lacks focus, this is why Generation rent’s work is so important. They can provide the vehicle for those 5 million tenant voters while the politicians merely argue over vote winning policies with little conviction.
I don’t tire of reading your comments Ben, believe me. But I think on this occasion you missed my point (and went off on a wee tangent there). Suffice to say it wasn’t “the situation” I was alluding to.
For the record Mark Littlewood is the Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
For the RLA to have had two warriors prepared to take the stand would be too much.
When I suggested that Registered Rents (remember?) were a reminder of Rachmanism and asked if the audience would vote for that – to get a couple of people saying yes was a complete gobsmacker. Frankly it indicates the audience, and I counted no more than 90 in that enormous, accoustically-challenged hall, to be totally un-representative.
Alan
So Alan,…. were 90 people on a Wednesday morning (A bewildering choice for an event) as un-representative as the thousands who took to the streets just 4 days before demanding a fairer housing system?
People kept on the back foot will always push back. Gently at first but if the ears continue to remain deaf the shouts will get louder and the resistance from the other side more intractable.
Its been a standard formula for thousands of years as is the formulaic response by whatever established system is being challenged.
You don’t know what you are talking about.
Your a vocal minority and not representative of everyone.
You’re just an agitator.
Take your pick.
@ Rent Rebel……ah!!!! well thats the weakness of the written word and the power of 3 glasses of wine for you :)
@Alan,
What did you expect?
Didn’t you research them first?
By giving them credence it does more harm than good- to both landlords and tenants.
@Ben,
“90 people on a Wednesday morning (A bewildering choice for an event)”
– It makes sense if those attending were getting paid for it during working hours. Charity industry workers, council workers, journalists, politicians etc
How many were actually tenants?
“Thousands who took to the streets just 4 days before demanding a fairer housing system?”
600- 6000 (at the most optimistic). Protesters from class war, socialist party, trade unions, anarchists, local authorities, politicians etc.
I don’t think they were at all representative of the UK’s 20 million plus social and private renters.
“Take your pick.”
OK, I go for ‘B’;
“A vocal minority and not representative of anyone.”
They have 343 supporters by my reckoning, including employees, financiers, friends, family, politicos etc.
They don’t represent the country’s renters.
Time will tell HB time will tell.
The voice of 90 activists on a Wednesday morning isnt enough to bring changes in Westminster, not even Labour policies but if there isnt a growing groundswell for a change to a fairer housing system the matter woulndt even be getting a mention in the papers and would be completely ignored by politicians….it isnt.
I wouldnt fall into the trap of thinking that one meeting is just a bit of madness.
I mean……..they laughed at Tommy Cooper!!!!!!!!!!!!!