Mum's rent petition signed by more than 40,000 people
Bridget, from Darlington, is campaigning to limit rent rises for tenants. She says: "My landlord recently hiked my rent by £100. I've been renting privately all my adult life, but getting a sudden rent hike still comes as a shock and has been very stressful, especially as the landlord gave us just one month's notice.
"This is nearly a 20% increase. As a single parent living with my two children, with one income to live on, the impact will ripple through my life. I feel broken down by this system."
The petition, which can be signed here, is still growing.
This isn't the first issue Bridget has had with rented homes, after extreme damp in a previous home led to a hospital trip after she developed pneumonia.
"I hoped this new home would be better, but once again, I've suffered a huge blow to my security," she says. "Rents in my local area in County Durham are high, and I cannot simply jump to another more affordable option."
She - like many others - is also facing increased bills and food costs.
"I was already struggling to cover my essentials; this shock rent rise will put even more of a strain on me," she says. "My mental health has been badly affected, and I worry about the long-term impact this will have on myself and my family."
Important reforms in the Renters' Rights Bill are currently passing through Parliament. These will help to make renting fairer in England, including ending Section 21 evictions, which currently allow landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason.
"But they do nothing to stop shock rent rises like the one my family has faced," says Bridget.
"While the government says tenants will be able to challenge 'unreasonable' rent rises at tribunal, decisions will be based on what the rent would be if your home was re-let – not what you can afford.
"As long as landlords can price their tenants out of their own homes with unaffordable rent rises, renters will still effectively face unfair evictions and be threatened with homelessness."
Private renters are being HIT with relentless rent hikes.
The impact? Thousands are being pushed into debt and homelessness.
It's time for change. Sign our petition and demand better⤵️https://t.co/AOy1ytWmCv https://t.co/ZxBJ8UbnxQ — Generation Rent (@genrentuk) May 12, 2025
Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation showing more than a third of private renters are living in poverty after housing costs. Meanwhile, Generation Rent's research has shown 9/10 renters say the experience of renting has negatively impacted their mental health.
Generation Rent's winter 2024 survey found that the majority of renters (61%) reported that their landlord had asked them to pay a higher rent in the past 12 months with almost a quarter (24%) reported an increase over £100. This compares to just 9% reporting hikes of this size in July 2022, almost a threefold increase.
Meanwhile, the 2024 English Private Landlord survey found one in five landlords hiked the rent by 15% or more the last time they renewed or extended a tenancy.
The most common reason that renters reported they had been given for their rent increases, was not because their landlord faced increased costs, or was struggling more, it was simply because of the rising rewards of the market.
Recommended reading:
Almost a third (31%) of landlords had blamed higher market rents, while a further 7% stated that the increase was because of letting agent advice.
The petition adds: "This is indefensible. If renters are to finally feel secure in our own homes, we need protections from shock rent rises.
"Private landlords should not be able to raise the rent higher than inflation or wages. The Government can and must act to change this."
Sign my petition, which has the full backing of Generation Rent, to demand the government introduces a cap on how much landlords can raise the rent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ITV News
2 hours ago
- ITV News
Why is the South West building so many new homes when thousands of old ones are empty?
The roof was falling in, water was creeping into the adjoining houses, and the garden was a jungle. No one had lived in the two-bedroom terraced house in Bath's Oldfield Park since 2001. Yet Bath & North East Somerset Council could do little about it, even though it had a housing waiting list of 5,500 people. "There's no specific, standalone law that prohibits a property being left empty," says Debbie Freeman, the council's sole Empty Property Officer. "It only becomes illegal when it starts to have a detrimental impact on other properties. We have to build a really clear case for enforcement; it's really labour-intensive. It can often cost a lot of money to bring cases to court.' With limited powers, it took the council more than a decade of legal wrangling to force the Oldfield Park owner to sell. And B&NES is one of the minority of councils with a dedicated Empty Property Officer. Two thirds of councils don't have anyone tasked with fighting these empty property battles. They used to have. Between 2012 and 2015 English councils got ring-fenced government money under the National Empty Homes Programme to fill up empty houses. They could spend it on officers like Debbie, grants, renovations. But when the money stopped, so did much of the work. An interactive map showing the number of empty homes across the South West According to the campaign group Action on Empty Homes, the number of long-term empty properties in England jumped by a third once the programme ended. It now stands at over 265,000 empty homes: 24,000 of them here in the South West - these are unoccupied, unfurnished homes that have stood empty for more than six months. Councils do have some tools for dealing with them. They can charge extra council tax on vacant properties (assuming they know who owns them - another challenge). They can give grants and VAT discounts to people wanting to renovate. Or they can do what B&NES Council does, and fight court battles. But there is no legal requirement for local authorities to bring empty properties back into use. With stretched budgets, many don't. "Empty homes are an opportunity to deal with the worst aspects of our housing crisis", says Chris Bailey, Campaign Manager at Action on Empty Homes. "Don't leave homes empty when they could be housing people. "They're homes that are in the right places. They're homes that are on your street and my street. They're not built on greenbelt. They're right there where people want to live - in the middle of our towns and cities - and they're going to waste." The government didn't mention empty homes in its manifesto, and it has not talked of reviving the funding to tackle the problem. Instead it has promised to build 1.5 million new houses over this parliament. Legally, it's the easier solution. Politically, it's powerful. But thousands of old homes stand silent and forgotten.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
PETER HITCHENS: The police are revolting against the people of this country. They have failed to do their jobs and now they dare threaten us... the time has come for change
Our police chiefs have now quite obviously grown too big for their helmets. Their heads have got too swollen, while their feet, which they barely use any more, have gone soft from lack of contact with the pavement. The sheer nerve of their new threat to stop investigating some crimes if they don't like the size of their budget is an outrage. If Sir Keir Starmer wants to evoke a great cry of 'At last!' from the people of this country, he will very swiftly squash this disgraceful revolt against the public and Parliament by three of the most senior figures in the police hierarchy.
Wales Online
3 hours ago
- Wales Online
Wales is recruiting ‘nowhere near enough' secondary teachers
Wales is recruiting 'nowhere near enough' secondary teachers Only a third of the number of secondary school teachers have been recruited Wales is only training around a third of the necessary secondary school teachers, with nowhere near enough recruits and no improvement in sight, an education chief warned. The Welsh Government aims to train about 1,000 teachers each year but the Education Workforce Council issued 369 certificates, according to the latest data from August 2024. A further 34 people trained through an Open University route. In August, 27 maths teachers got their certificates, but 130 is the target. In terms of Welsh teachers, the hope is for 80 to 90 but only 20 completed training in 2024. Education Workforce Council (EWC) chief executive Hayden Llewellyn, gave evidence to the Senedd education committee and said the trend for secondary schools has gotten worse over the past ten to 20 years, with improvements during the pandemic 'dropping back significantly'. He told Senedd members: "I'm sorry to say, having tracked recruitment and retention for many years – I can't really see secondary improving." For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here Recruitment in some subjects – such as PE, history and geography – is fine but maths, English, sciences, Welsh and modern foreign languages are particularly low, he said. EWC data showed 75% of those teaching maths are trained in the subject and, speaking more generally, he said the number is lower still for sciences. He warned: 'Given the picture with recruitment, we could see that picture deteriorating." In terms of primary school teachers, the Welsh Government aims for about 600 primary teachers to be trained each year, a number which overdelivered in August 2024. Article continues below Eithne Hughes, the EWC's chair, added that some in Wales are teaching not just their specialism 'but possibly a couple of others, adding to the workload pressure'. Ms Hughes said: 'That becomes an issue when you've got reduced funding and headteachers just having to have somebody in front of classes. It doesn't support standards.' Mr Llewellyn raised the example set by Scotland where teachers' registration is linked to a specific subject or phase. 'You cannot teach a subject you're not trained in,' he said. Mr Llewellyn said the number of Welsh-speaking teachers is 33% – higher than the census – but it has remained static despite initiatives, with a lower number among support staff. He told the committee the number of Welsh speakers currently completing training is about 20% for primaries and 18% for secondaries, against a target of 30%. "When you magnify that down into particular subjects, you see those figures dropping," he said, adding that only three of the 27 new maths teachers were Welsh speakers. Ms Hughes, a former headteacher in an English-medium school, told Senedd members she found recruiting Welsh teachers extremely difficult during her experience. Pressed about the key barriers and why Welsh Government targets are 'continually missed', Ms Hughes pointed to work-life balance, policy overload, pay, and behavioural problems. She suggested teachers are expected to be a social worker, police officer and medical expert, stressing: 'We have to allow the business of teaching… to be at the core'. Mr Llewellyn agreed: "What it means to be a teacher… in terms of workload, stress, bureaucracy, accountability, lack of autonomy, and pupil behaviour – it's a tough gig." He urged policymakers to treat the causes rather than the symptoms as he questioned 'flashy' promotional campaigns: "If what you're trying to promote isn't good, it won't work." Pointing out that the starting salary for some bus drivers is near to teachers' in Wales, he warned: "The reality is: to be convinced to be a teacher is increasingly unlikely." Asked about retention, he said around 2,400 teachers leave the EWC register every year, concluding:"We need to watch this really carefully because it's OK when you lose individuals from the profession and you're recruiting the number you need back. But… we are recruiting nowhere near the number of secondary and Welsh-medium teachers that we need. Attrition is OK if you're replacing but therein lies the problem." Article continues below
