UK

London Renters Union march and rally

Hundreds took to the streets to deliver a message to Foxtons and the government

December 16, 2024




On Saturday, hundreds of London renters marched along Oxford Street to the High Holborn branch of Foxtons, to raise public awareness and call for a curb on spiralling rents and asset-driven development.

London Renters’ Union have been campaigning since 2017 for an end to the Housing Act’s Section 21 evictions, otherwise known as ‘no-fault evictions’ , and the currently proposed Renters Rights Bill should finally outlaw the practice of landlords kicking tenants out whenever suits, or when they complain about disrepair and suchlike.

The new legislation is certainly a huge win for tenant campaigners, but now several major unions including the National Education Union have joined a call for rent controls.

Rents have increased by 60% since 2020, and many people in precarious employment as spending more than 50% of their income on rent – effectively all the money they earn from January until June goes straight to a landlord.

Meanwhile, huge corporate developers promise local regeneration, building luxury flats which actually cause knock-on effects in city communities. In Hackney, the Council has closed two primary schools and merged others, and is still consulting on shutting down several more, blaming low birth rates, but campaigners claim it’s council policies that are responsible for eroding social and affordable housing and pushing families out of the area and even out of London.

At the St. Thomas Abney Primary School, earmarked for closure, 250 pupils have disappeared from the role. Coincidentally, the nearby Woodberry Down estate has been ‘regenerated’. In 2001 census data shows 70% of the estate’s 3000 households were social housing. By 2021, this had decreased to just 48%, with private renters making up the difference, moving into million pound luxury flats.

So while Labour plans to rely on private developers to fix the housing crisis, the actual effect on communities is likely to be harmful, breaking up friendships, taking away jobs, and disrupting communities.

Big developers like L&Q, and Clarion own hundreds of thousands of properties in London, and estate agents like Foxtons drive development in their search for ever-increasing profits, pushing up rents in new builds, but also pushing up rents in surrounding areas.

In just over 5 years the London Renters Union has grown to more than 7000 members, and has managed to halt evictions including major successes such as the Mitford Towers in Catford, which was destined for demolition. Tenants fought successfully to not only keep their homes, but halt the obscene levels of disrepair. After a concerted campaign by LRU, they’ve had new security doors installed, leaks fixed and mould removed, and lifts have been fixed. The battle is ongoing, but the plan to turn the site into a car-park with the loss of a considerable amount of social housing is now shelved.

After speeches and a noisy protest outside Foxtons, protesters left a letter on the window of the estate agents outlining their demands, and left piles of carboard removal boxes against the front doors.



Next year, the union will be fighting hard for rent controls. They already exist in 16 European countries, and were also standard housing policy in the UK until Thatcher dismantled them in the 80s. In Kansas City, campaigners have gained power over local government and introduced laws controlling rents. If it can be done in the United States, it can surely be possible here.