It’s time to freeze council and housing association rents for four million tenant households – but government is set to increase our rents by 5% or 10%. We say it’s time to freeze all rents and service charges. Let’s organise to stop these huge rent rises from ever taking place. Government must provide funding so that service standards are not reduced.
No rent or service charge rises in a cost of living crisis!
Department of Levelling Up, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF
Eileen Short from Defend Council Housing and Suz Muna from Social Housing Action Campaign present letter to Simon Clarke MP Secretary of State for Levelling Up
The housing crisis has not been paused. Housing activists and tenants protested outside the Department of Levelling Up on 14 September demanding a rent & service charge freeze and a moratorium on evictions for rent arrears. Crucially, we also demanded government funding to ensure there is no impact on housing quality and services.
We went to the Housing Ministry (Dept of ‘Levelling Up’) to say rents must be frozen. Tenants are facing an 11 % rent rise next April. We started to campaign, and the wobbly government was driven to consult on capping rents. Help us step up the campaign, and we can win this! We will be back on 6 October at 12 noon, when inflation figures are announced. Come and join us.
The Government is consulting on three possible rent rises and is leaning towards 5%. Defend Council Housing suggests something like the following comments. The consultation is really aimed at landlords, not tenants, so we should respond as the people most affected by these rises! It will be easier to respond by email to Socialhousingrents@levellingup.gov.uk
Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) is campaigning to prevent social rent rises of around 10.4% next April. Service charges are uncapped and could rise by any amount. There should be no rent or service charge rises in a cost-of-living crisis.
Please Sign the SHAC Pledge for non-payment of rent or service charge increases. You can view the Pledge here.
