Decent Homes, Affordable Rents: A Private Renters' Manifesto for the City of Westminster
"You can't put down roots" - Focus Group Participant
About the project
The private rented sector is in a state of crisis. Poor conditions and unaffordable rents are rife across the country, but intensified in the City of Westminster.
Funded by the Nationwide Foundation, we have gathered insight from focus groups, surveys and secondary research to identify the challenges renters in the borough face. Alongside a Steering Group of Westminster private renters, we have drawn on this insight to co-produce our manifesto, which makes recommendations for improving for the way Westminster City Council supports private renters.
Many members of the Steering Group also attended a creative writing workshop to capture their experiences, and have recorded themselves reading their work too.
The Context
Nearly one in five households in England live in the private rented sector. But the sector is in crisis, with sky-high rents, poor-quality homes and insecurity the norm for many renters.
And the problems with the private rented sector nationally are magnified in Westminster. The average private sector rent in Westminster is more than double the national average, and the rented property eviction rate in the borough is nearly 3 times the national average.
![Pink text in a black speech bubble on a white background reads "[We need] serious sanctions against landlords. They often get away with a lot of things and usually it’s only when it’s already too late or something significant has happened to the tenant - Survey respondent"](https://z2k.org/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/Manifesto-Quotes-for-Exhibition-PDF-3-r2qxwep97fqi2l2oyt9i4ymztiq1o8hbzsfzqjm97w.png)
We call on the council to
- Increase enforcement action against rogue landlords. The council needs to raise awareness of its services, make its services more accessible, and ensure that hazards are being appropriately addressed.
- Press on with its proposals for selective landlord licensing. The council needs to stand firm in the face of calls to water down the proposals and ensure the plans are progressed as quickly as possible.
- Campaign for rent stabilisation. The council should call on the government to introduce rent stabilisation measures that would restrict rent increases in the private rented sector, in order to reduce back-door evictions, prevent homelessness and better allow renters to exercise their rights.
- Ensure that struggling renters receive discretionary housing payments, particularly as the council places increasing focus on the prevention of homelessness.
Members of our Steering Group, who are all private renters in the City of Westminster, took part in a creative writing workshop hosted at Z2K’s office to capture their experiences through written and spoken words.
You can read the pieces by downloading the pamphlet or watch and listen to some of the group reading out their work below…
This project was funded by the Nationwide Foundation.