Generation Rent sets out 'alternative Queen's Speech'

Generation Rent, the pressure group advocating extensive restrictions on letting agents and private landlords, is now offering an alternative Queen’s Speech ahead of the announcement of the new government’s programme for its first year in office.

The 13 page document includes a demand for the creation of a cabinet position of Secretary of State for Housing, protection for tenants when their landlord wants to sell the property, and a system of rent control and tax on landlords which would raise money for a public house-building programme.

Generation Rent has also revealed a Survation opinion poll claiming that 63 per cent of private renters want to leave the rental sector in the next five years - but only a third of those think they will be able to do so. 

The findings suggest some 55 per cent of private renters would like to buy a home in the next five years, which equates to 2.61m private renter households. That would involve more than half a million households becoming first time buyers every year – a level not seen since 2002.

“This programme is what ending the housing crisis looks like. These are actions that can be taken immediately that will provide funds for public housing, protection for tenants, begin to wean the nation off its addiction to capital gain and support the leadership we need at national and local level to take on this challenge” according to Alex Hilton, director of Generation Rent.

“To date we have seen no other plan to solve this crisis. There are plans to fiddle around the edges and even plans to make it worse, but none that provide a solution and do so with urgency” he claims.