Generation Rent calls for an end to 'discriminatory' Right to Rent

Generation Rent calls for an end to ‘discriminatory’ Right to Rent

Two people signing a rental agreement with house keys and a model home on the table.
12:05 AM, 12th November 2024, 1 year ago 21

Tenant activist group Generation Rent is urging the government to abolish the Right to Rent policy, arguing that it disproportionately affects migrant and ethnic minority renters.

In a report, it details the negative consequences of the policy, which requires landlords in England to check the immigration status of potential tenants.

The research highlights the findings from the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) which found that 24% of landlords still feel unable to rent to non-UK passport holders, despite the policy being in place for more than eight years.

Also, 85% of prospective tenants who requested online Right to Rent checks received no response from landlords or letting agents.

When questioned, 56% of landlords who said they couldn’t rent to non-UK passport holders pointed to the risk of civil penalties if they were caught out by the policy as a reason.

Who has the right to rent

Generation Rent says: “Although landlords and agents must not make assumptions about who has the right to rent, government research found that 25% of landlords were unwilling, on principle, to let to non-British passport holders, even when they would have the right to rent here.”

“It takes twice as long for black and minority ethnic groups and migrant peoples to find a home to rent compared to a white British person.”

The group held roundtables with UNISON in April to learn of the experiences of public sector workers.

Most of those highlighted the negative impact that Right to Rent had on their, and their family and friends’, ability to find safe and secure homes.

Overhaul the private rented sector

Generation Rent says that the Renters’ Rights Bill offers a crucial opportunity to overhaul the private rented sector and ensure fair and secure housing for all.

However, to succeed, the Bill must address the specific needs of marginalised renters, particularly those from migrant and minority ethnic communities who are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis.

And that means, it says, abolishing the discriminatory Right to Rent policy.


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Comments

  • Member Since February 2018 - Comments: 627

    3:07 PM, 12th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    Reply to the comment left by TheMaluka at 12/11/2024 – 12:20
    ‘ineptitude’?

    Not at all, they are yet another highly adept mechanism for the destruction of social cohesion; if we are going to extract ourselves from the multifaceted mess the world is in, we have to look beyond the ‘obvious’ face of just about everything be it the ‘climate crisis’, the ‘pandemic’, the ‘war’ in Ukraine, ‘refugees’, everything is just part of a manufactured, longterm, covert, increasingly not so covert, operation to destroy, rebuild, control, everything, all the time, in other words, global dictatorship, I know this might sound a bit nutty, but not only are the steps potable like a row if dominoes, but old texts actually tell us what was already then happening, this is just endgame but it’s not yet checkmate.

  • Member Since October 2022 - Comments: 58

    4:59 PM, 12th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    Lunatics trying to run the asylum again

  • Member Since July 2016 - Comments: 166

    5:02 PM, 12th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    RL you are spot on. I volunteer for a refugee charity and one of my jobs is to find housing which is an impossible task. Even if people meet the income criteria (unusual) they cannot provide a guarantor because they are new arrivals. Landlords can pick and choose and don’t want to or need to take a chance on people. Who can blame them with the new legislation coming in?

  • Member Since January 2015 - Comments: 1431 - Articles: 1

    6:02 PM, 12th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    Isn’t that the point of RTR that only those entitled to be in this country can rent property?

  • Member Since December 2023 - Comments: 1573

    6:37 PM, 12th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    We have a housing crisis because migration is uncontrolled.

    I wouldn’t even choose to people from the next county.

  • Member Since July 2024 - Comments: 112

    8:25 AM, 13th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    Thats a no! I rented to czechs who turned out to be criminals schooling the children to be criminals. Plus the wife had worked out the benefits in UK and said can you take me off the AST so that I can claim benefit rather than work. Maybe the Government needs to get rid of benefits so that everyone would have to go out and work.. I live in a jurisdiction where there is basically no benefits, guess what, everyone goes to work! funny that isnt it. I also rented to Nigerian students. The loss over 2-3 years from such types which nullify your insurance as they dont pass the credit ref checks wiped out all my profits for a 5 year period. So my choice 2024 sold 4, one more to go and taking all funds to a jursidiction that is not the broken UK. All my friends offshore who have kids now working in UK – all the kids want to leave the UK.

  • Member Since May 2021 - Comments: 15

    10:22 AM, 13th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    Again the obsession with migrants in the UK government and marxist non profit “charities”.

    I sold my primary residence a few years back and I tried to rent as an IT contractor with over £100k savings in the bank and no agent would allow me to view a property, despite have a fixed term contract with one of the largest law firms in the world and earning a top salary and having the savings. In the end I found a landlord that would accept proof of my savings in the form of a bank statement. Most of the time agents blocked me from even viewing the property because I was “unemployed” apparently.

    Yet we should be caring only about the predicament of jobless illegal migrants?

  • Member Since September 2018 - Comments: 3504 - Articles: 5

    10:28 AM, 13th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    Reply to the comment left by Judith Wordsworth at 12/11/2024 – 18:02
    yes that is all a R2R is.

    The political spin is trying to ‘evidence’ that ultimately LL’s are being discriminating against those coming from abroad and not offering them tenancies.

    The reality is LL’s cannot reference those from abroad (meaning that rent gtee and insurance may be invalid) and affordability is not guaranteed (especially if on benefits).

    A tenancy will not be offered as basic minimum requirements are not met – irrespective if the R2R is present.

  • Member Since January 2023 - Comments: 60

    7:26 AM, 14th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    I don’t believe anyone should be in this country illegally.
    I’m more than happy to perform right to rent checks & have done so many times since the law came in.
    Any land lord who isn’t happy to, then don’t complain about how our country is getting overpopulated & going down hill fast in many areas

  • Member Since February 2016 - Comments: 977 - Articles: 1

    7:40 AM, 16th November 2024, About 1 year ago

    Reply to the comment left by moneymanager at 12/11/2024 – 10:15
    Same here.
    The complete disregard for students (the current cycle of securing next year property around March and have no worries in Spring exam time worked very well) is going to disappear.
    More worries for students and their landlords.
    All that to shift them to huge student rentals blocks, and pay more.
    NRLA tried to bring that to Government attention, at no avail, of course.
    Time to sell everything and emigrate.

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