Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Almost no-one escapes unscathed from London’s private renting market in north London, survey finds
"I have so many bad rental stories. In one case, an agency told us their £300 fees would include 'everything'. Then, the landlord decided to slap on another charge for drawing up the contract - one copied and pasted from the Internet. There was nothing we could do without giving up the flat at short notice and becoming homeless." This is the experience of Ronald Stewart, Green Party candidate in the recent by-election in St. Ann’s.
Ronald Stewart, Anne Clark and Jarelle Francis (right to left), Haringey Green Party prospective candidates for 2018 Council elections
Nine out of ten renters had experienced four or more serious problems during their time renting in London.
Another one of them is Anne Clark, one of a team Haringey Green Party members getting ready to contest the local elections in 2018:
"As a private renter in London, I've lived in houses that have literally been falling apart, where the landlord has invested nothing in maintenance, but still tried to put the rent up every year. On one occasion, the boiler broke in the middle of winter, and there was no hot water or heating in the house for nearly three weeks, but we were offered no help or compensation.
“London needs a housing policy that puts renters first and holds dodgy landlords and letting agencies to account."
London Assembly Member Sian Berry has launched a report “What are London renters thinking?” based on the results of her recent Big Renters Survey of London’s private tenants.[i]
The report lays bare the scale of dissatisfaction among London’s renters, over a range of areas including rocketing rent costs, incomplete repairs, lost deposits and fear of losing their homes at the end of each annual contract. It also reveals the appetite for an independent renter’s organisation to investigate bad landlords, provide a voice for renters and campaign for better standards.
Across the north London boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, Hackney, Camden, Islington and Waltham Forest, renters spent on average 44 per cent of their entire take-home pay on covering their rent. Fifty-three per cent of Enfield and Haringey renters reported that they had problems with landlords coming into their homes without permission. This was the highest percentage in London, compared with a London-wide average of 43 per cent.
Significantly, nearly six out of ten renters said they would be prepared to pay a small fee to join a London-wide organisation that helped them in these ways.
Sian said:
“As a renter in London for nearly 20 years, it’s important to me that I keep bringing the voices of London’s 2.3 million private renters into City Hall. In this report I’m recommending that the Mayor stands up for London’s private renters and support them in standing up for themselves.
“The willingness of renters to pay a small fee to join a renters’ organisation is very significant, as it means such a group could become self-sustaining once it has been set up. The Mayor should look seriously at providing practical help such as office space and seed funding to help found an independent London-wide organisation to represent renters in our city.”
Among other recommendations, Sian’s report suggests more support at the London-wide level for renters, including a central information source with links to existing renter’s groups and council schemes. In addition to this, Sian calls for continued pressure from the Mayor to push the government to devolve more powers over housing to London.[ii]
Sixty-eight per cent of the 1,530 renters who filled in the survey also wrote in additional information, telling Sian about their experiences in London.[iii]
A copy of the report is available here: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/sian_berry_renter_sur...
An interactive map of results by GLA constituency area is here: http://www.sianberry.london/big-renters-survey/results/
[i] Sian launched the Big Renters Survey in July: https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/assembly/sian-berry/launch...
[ii] The full recommendations of the report are:
1. Better engagement with renters
Including seed funding a London-wide organisation to carry out research and investigations and provide a voice for renters in dealings with City Hall and councils
2. More help and information for renters
Provided by the GLA, with a central information source and links to existing groups and council schemes.
3. Better regulation and support for landlords
With support at the London level to ensure consistent council enforcement, training and licensing
4. Enhanced regulation of the sector nationally
With continued pressure from the Mayor, Assembly and London’s borough councils for powers to be devolved to London
[iii] Sixteen case studies are quoted in the report.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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What if you die before you can claim it? It just disappears into the coffers of the annuity providers. If it's a house then you can pass it on to your children, or Battersea Dogs Home if your children disappoint you.
I guess you can consider the capital repayment portion of your mortgage as savings too.
I think the government should be responsible for providing everyone, not just pensioners, with a minimum basic income but that's not what you were getting at. You were implying that we should squirrel away money like Dragons for our old age, as I said I'm not convinced that's such a good idea if we all do it.
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Permalink Reply by Ian on
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and when the age of retirement is pushed to the physical max , the next step will be to reduce pension entitlement as pensions is a system that is a ponsee scheme and never designed for the work to retirement ratios at present that is only going to get worst. Like the grand old duke of York, we are marched up to the top of the hill and then marched down again. the attack on landlords and anyone buying a 2nd property is an example. Famous words of ex Cameron, "we support hard working families" as long as you put your money into an ISA or some other form of corporate controlled method.
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Charlotte, do you want to change the system as in big picture touching all parts of society and all activities or is it just private people that own 2nd properties your target as immoral. You want to stop capitalism, stop parents competing by renting locally from a landlord so they can send their children to a school outside of their catchment area only to move back once the child is in school. What about top people from outside of UK coming over and getting the top job instead of local talent. If you are going to throw in big words like morality then you really need to consider and not just some whim from a newspaper.
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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Yes the Guardian is such a salacious rag....what would they know
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Ian, what did I do to cause such an offensive, pompous rant? All I was doing was a) interpreting why Antoinette said it was immoral, and b) explaining what I meant by saying someone buying to let could be doing so at the expense of someone else. I didn't post a link to a newspaper article, I didn't even mention one. I am capable of independent thinking and interpreting why someone might think something was immoral, whether or not I agree with them. I was engaging in conversation.
I think it would be great to change the system so that everyone got the opportunity to have a home that was appropriate for their needs (you know, like families not living in bedsits or B&Bs - there is an article about the housing list in Barking & Dagenham in the Guardian today - they have a 50 year waiting list, that is not acceptable IMHO in a country as well-resourced as the UK).
But as you've raised it, then I don't really think it's ok to move just to get within a catchment and then move back once your kid's in the school. What happens to the truly local kid whose place you took? Is it ok for them to have to get the bus to a school miles away just because you're rich (but not rich enough to buy in that area eh)? And I think many employers could do better at trying to find local talent for their top jobs, but I sold my soul to the corporate man many years ago so I inhabit that universe.
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Apologies charlotte, I pointed the pen at the wrong person. It should have been fully pointed at Antoinette for calling us immoral. You were however involved in the support so some fallout still needs to go your way.
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Fallout? What on earth are you on about? Fallout because I don't happen to share your opinion? Is this your normal behaviour?
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Pensions are not a Ponzi Scheme but imagine if "everyone" was a buy-to-let landlord...
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I guess the State Pension is a Ponzi Scheme, if it's funded out of current taxes. But then so are all state benefits.
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Money is "loaned into existence". Taxes remove money from the system and essentially delete it if it's used to pay off government debts. We do make profits as a country that we can share out with the people, it's called GDP. The beauty of giving some of these profits to pensioners is that they don't delete it by paying off their debts, they spend it. The same goes for EMA that the government stupidly got rid of.
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everyone cannot be a B to L landlord as life is not an equal sum game, people are not equal in abilities, intelligence, motivation etc etc, everyone is different. Imagine a pyramid.Everyone however can receive a pension and the rules, taxes paid, age of retirement and other variables will all have to change and in time drastically in order to continue to make it viable in the face of a growing retirement population without ever increasing growth (capitalism) and more workers paying taxes backed by growth. Long term Ponzi scheme but a great innovation. So I want to look big picture and try to develop a tiny bit of wealth for myself, family and future generation and you support a label of immorality onto B to L owners. Quite ridiculous. Wrong target. I am from the block along with most other small scale landlords trying to progress. We are all trying to progress like yourselves and the guardian journalist that may have spent near a decade progressing through higher education but maybe a renter for life and now bemoaning what he does not have. I am not an elite 1%.
Maybe read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" is this sufficient rant.
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Oh my God! I've read RDPD, relatives are friends of his. He is a charlatan spinning works of fiction off as reality. Now I see where you're coming from.
I'm not saying that B to L landlords are immoral or bad, I'm saying that we can't ALL do it or there would be chaos. So don't go telling us that you're special because you forgo visits to restaurants so that you can save up deposits. There is no market for you to sell to without most people spending their money.
"tiny bit of wealth" - ha ha ha. That's a good one.
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