Why I’m taking action for rent control

Like most ordi­nary Lon­don­ers, it’s not often that I go into the cen­tre of the city. The heart of our metrop­o­lis has long been the pre­serve of tourists, shop­pers, and the super-rich. But on the 14^th Decem­ber, I’ll be one of the sev­er­al hun­dred ten­ants from across the cap­i­tal com­ing togeth­er to retake the streets in protest of extor­tion­ate­ly high rents.

Rents have been too high for too long. But in the last few years, London’s rigged rent­ing sys­tem has gone into over­drive. The few neigh­bour­hoods which used to be (com­par­a­tive­ly) afford­able have all but dis­ap­peared as devel­op­ers and land­lords have tight­ened their grip on our city.

As a result, many ten­ants are forced to hand over the major­i­ty of our income to our land­lords. That means half of our week, we are work­ing for our land­lords. That leaves lit­tle left to spend on the essen­tials. Mil­lions of us are cut­ting back on the basics like food and heat­ing. Hun­dreds of thou­sands of us have sim­ply been unable to keep up with land­lords’ ever-grow­ing demand for prof­it and have been forced into home­less­ness, liv­ing out of suit­cas­es in cramped tem­po­rary accommodation.

This cri­sis is affect­ing every­one I know. Per­son­al­ly, I’ve been evict­ed, only to see my land­lord sell the ex-coun­cil flat I called home for half a mil­lion pounds. I’ve been forced to pay upwards of £1200 for a sin­gle room in a shared house, only to find the place rid­dled with dis­re­pair. Even for my friends who have found them­selves a decent place, there is always the under­ly­ing knowl­edge that this too is temporary.

Our human right to hous­ing is more impor­tant than a landlord’s desire to accu­mu­late prof­it. That’s why we are com­ing togeth­er to demand rent con­trols. Rent con­trols are sim­ply lim­its on how much land­lords can charge for hous­ing that would work to make rent­ing more afford­able for every­one over time.

Such a sys­tem is noth­ing new. Over 100 years ago in 1915, ten­ants in Glas­gow went on rent strike and won the UK’s first rent con­trols. These basic pro­tec­tions were the norm for much of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry until Mar­garet Thatch­er abol­ished them in 1988. We don’t just need to look to the past to see the pow­er of organ­ised ten­ants. In Scot­land, in Barcelona, and across Europe, renters are tak­ing action and they are win­ning rent con­trols too. Now it’s our turn.

This fight is about more than just our per­son­al bank bal­ances. The fight for rent con­trol is the fight for ordi­nary peo­ple to have a say over the shape of our city. It is about the kinds of com­mu­ni­ties we want to build and the kind of polit­i­cal sys­tem we need to ensure we can all put down roots and thrive.

We are sick of see­ing our city carved up by the rich and pow­er­ful. Lon­don has become a place where prof­it takes prece­dence over peo­ple — where entire com­mu­ni­ties are being dis­placed to make way for iden­ti­cal rows of drea­ry chains, where schools are shut­ting down because fam­i­lies can no longer afford to live here, where the aver­age rent is high­er than the month­ly salary of a care work­er or a teach­ing assis­tant. The peo­ple who keep this city run­ning are made to feel increas­ing­ly unwel­come as our homes are turned into assets to be accu­mu­lat­ed and exchanged by a wealthy few.

The hous­ing cri­sis is a nation­al dis­grace. It’s also a polit­i­cal choice that has been decades in the mak­ing, from the sell-off of our coun­cil homes to the removal of basic ten­an­cy pro­tec­tions in the 1980s. While our move­ment has fought hard to win an end to so-called ​“no-fault evic­tions” in the upcom­ing Renters’ Rights Bill, when it comes to afford­abil­i­ty, the Labour gov­ern­ment has tak­en its hands off the wheel. Instead, politi­cians are rolling out the red car­pet for devel­op­ers who seek to build expen­sive flats on our doorsteps that ordi­nary peo­ple can­not afford, and that may only serve to push rents up higher.

What’s worse is this appalling state of affairs is being bankrolled by the state. The gov­ern­ment is sub­si­dis­ing pri­vate land­lords’ extor­tion­ate rents to the tune of 70bn (over a five year peri­od). That’s before you account for the bil­lions spent every year on tem­po­rary accom­mo­da­tion for home­less fam­i­lies, dwellings that are usu­al­ly pro­vid­ed by pri­vate providers and are often unfit for human habitation.

No per­son could deny that the cur­rent sys­tem is fail­ing to meet our needs. The Thatcherite exper­i­ment has failed. Land­lords are clear­ly unable to reg­u­late them­selves and some­thing as fun­da­men­tal as hous­ing should nev­er have been left to the market.

Rent con­trols can help take the pres­sure off peo­ple right now and dis­cour­age fur­ther par­a­sitic spec­u­la­tion while we fight to reverse the pri­vati­sa­tion of our hous­ing sys­tem and win pub­lic homes for every­one who needs them.

Lon­don is for every­one. It’s time to take back our city and demand a hous­ing sys­tem that works for the peo­ple who actu­al­ly live in it, rather than those who seek to prof­it from it. Organ­ised ten­ants have won before and we can win again. Join me and hun­dreds of oth­er renters this Sat­ur­day 14^th Decem­ber at 11:30am in Cavendish Square Gar­dens to say it’s time to cut the rent.

See you in the streets.

Find out more about the Lon­don Renters Union here.

Enjoyed this arti­cle? Fol­low Huck on Insta­gram.

Sup­port sto­ries like this by becom­ing a mem­ber of Club Huck.