Don't whinge, millennials: it's your fault you can't afford to rent in London

Telegraph

12-03-2025

'Come, all ye workers, from every land, come, join in the grand industrial band'.
There is Power In a Union was originally written in 1913 for the Industrial Workers of the World, a union that focused its efforts on organising migrant workers in lumber and construction camps. Trying to unionise these workers made perfect sense to the socialist ideals of the IWW, who saw it as a way to preventing employers from using them to undercut native labour. Such were the foundations the unions of old were founded upon.
But the self-interest of members can no longer be taken for granted as the raison d' être of modern 'unions'. Take the example of the hapless London Renters Union.
In reply to shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp's assertion that 48 per cent of London's social housing is occupied by people who are foreign-born, suggesting that 'The UK cannot serve as the world's social housing provider', the union argued that only 75 per cent of London social renters hold UK passports.
That 75 per cent of London social renters hold UK passports does not disprove that 48 per cent of London's social housing is occupied by people who are foreign-born, nor that they are proportionally more likely than private renters or owner occupiers to be economically inactive. Moreover, it is not a stunning victory for the London renter that 1 in 4 people enjoying massively subsidised housing does not have a UK passport. Surely we ought to be outraged that nearly half of the social housing in our nation's capital, some of the most expensive real estate in the world, is occupied by those who were born abroad.
It will surprise no one that the London Renters Union places the blame for the UK housing system and the extortionate rates London renters pay squarely at the foot of the Government, banks, developers and landlords. Their point is that 'NOBODY should be forced to live at the whims of rip-off private landlords, NOBODY should be priced out of their communities. EVERYBODY should have access to public housing.'
This is an interesting idea to explore. Public housing, despite the claims of the Left, does not come cost-free; it is sustained by taxpayers. Given that those being charged extraordinary rates by private landlords – and those supposedly represented by the LRU – are the ones most likely to be providing the tax base to fund it, one would expect the union to advocate for policies that actually reduce rents, like building more housing and reducing immigration.
But by insisting on a universal and unrestricted right to social houses, regardless of tax contribution or national belonging, they are agitating against the interests of their own members; the more social housing is allocated to first-generation migrants who are net fiscal drains, the greater the tax burden on those London renters who have to shoulder the costs. Housing is a scarce resource: more demand with a static supply raises prices.
When immigrants first arrived in large numbers into London during the 1960s, they often lacked the local connections necessary to secure a spot on the housing list, leaving them in low-quality private rentals. Many saw this as unjust and advocated for reform, leading to the current needs-based system. Under the new rules, a large Bangladeshi family living in substandard conditions could accumulate enough points to be prioritised over young local white residents, who may have been waiting for years.
This may explain why boroughs like Tower Hamlets have a massive over-representation of those with migrant heritage compared to the native population. The London Renters Union, in defending a housing model that prioritises those who are more likely to be economically inactive rather than workers struggling under to pay private rents, serves capital rather than its members.
It was once said that mass migration meant you had to compete with the world's richest on the housing market and the world's poorest on the labour market: the LRU is proving that renters have to fight their own 'union' too.