Responding to today’s news from Labour party conference of a commitment to end Section 21 evictions and the announcement of a £20m seed fund for renters unions, a spokesperson from London Renters Union said:

“We’re delighted that Labour has committed to ending Section 21 evictions, currently the leading cause of homelessness in England. This a huge victory for our campaign to end Section 21 and, we hope, the beginning of a paradigm shift toward renter rights and away from the current injustice of our housing system.

“We welcome plans by Labour to support the new and growing renters movement through the creation of a £20m seed fund for renters unions – renter unions are vital to redressing the gross imbalance of power at the heart of our broken housing system.

“Millions of people are stuck paying extortionate rents they cannot afford, only to face eviction and homelessness at a moment’s notice. Renters have few if any rights to fall back on, and no collective voice. Meanwhile profiteering landlords are represented by powerful lobbies. In London alone, they are set to rake in £22bn over the next year from rental yields.

“Renters are more than just a convenient source of income for property investors – we’re people who need homes to live and thrive in. Ending Section 21 is a vital first step to removing incentives for landlordism and profiteering from housing, and toward a housing model based on homes for people not profit.

“Renters across the country are standing up and fighting back, and union organisation is an effective means of giving renters the voice they need. London Renters Union launched city-wide this year to empower renters to support one another and stand together against exploitative landlords and agents. We’re aiming to transform our housing system through collective action and shift the balance of power from landlords to renters.

“It’s crucial that any government funding for renters unions comes with a commitment to protecting independence and putting renter voices first and foremost.”

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Press contact: hello@londonrentersunion.org

London Renters Union is a new campaigning union for private renters. We launched London-wide in summer 2018 and have branches in Newham, Lewisham and Hackney, with plans to set up branches across the capital. londonrentersunion.org

London Renters Union is part of a national campaign to end Section 21 evictions, alongside Generation Rent and the New Economics Foundation. Section 21 is the leading cause of homelessness. Revenge evictions are on the rise with 141,000 revenge evictions since 2015.

Members of the Newham & Leytonstone branch of the London Renters Union successfully passed a motion to end Section 21 through the Leytonstone and Wanstead Constituency Labour Party recently, helping to ensure the issue was raised at conference.

London Renters Union have calculated that the total amount Londoners will pay in rent in 2019 is £22.9bn. This is calculated by a simple projection of number of PRS households in London next year (1,151,306) x expected average monthly rent per household (1657) x 12.

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