ACORN England & Wales Campaigns

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ACORN's National Campaigns.

Join in with a national action so we can win. We are stronger together.

Email your candidates - Housing

On July 4th, the nation will go to the polls. ACORN is focusing on 4 demands at this election, both looking to national parties to deliver the changes we need, but also calling on local candidates to commit to fighting for these areas if they are elected.

Use this template to write to your local candidates and tell them to support ACORN's housing demands; end no fault evictions, bring in rent control, safe and decent homes for all, and public investment in public housebuilding. You can maximise your impact by using your voice to personalise the message.

Find your local candidate

Compose your email

Subject:

I am a resident of the constituency you are contesting and a supporter of ACORN, the community union. I am reaching out to you because I am deeply concerned about the housing crisis, which is affecting my community and others like it all over the country.

For years, landlords have been putting up rents so fast that wages can’t catch up, leaving renters with a lower quality of life, less ability to save, and less money to spend in the wider economy. People are having to move frequently just to find somewhere affordable to live, which undermines the social fabric that is the basis for community life, and is incredibly disruptive to a child’s education. Often, renters are too scared to complain about poor conditions for fear of an unaffordable rent hike forcing them out of their homes. I want to see rent controls introduced that bring rents down so that no-one has to spend more than 30% of their income on rent.

Not only is housing expensive, it’s also insecure. No-fault (or Section 21) evictions allow landlords to kick tenants out of their homes for no reason with only 2 months notice, leading to stress, inconvenience and expense for the tenants who have to move. This insecurity makes tenants scared of complaining about bad living conditions, or negotiating on rent price, in case they are evicted in retaliation. No-fault evictions are a major cause of the temporary accommodation crisis, which costs councils and the taxpayer millions, and makes evicted families have to live in unsuitable, crowded housing. I believe that no-fault evictions should be abolished in almost all circumstances, so that renters can have the secure housing that is necessary for a stable life.

Renters are also struggling with dangerously poor living standards, which cost our NHS billions every year. Private renters have to wait too long for action from councils, who don’t have the resources for proper enforcement. Social renters put up with regulation so ineffective it has cost lives. Disabled tenants of all tenures find it too hard to get the adaptations they need for their home to be accessible. I think that legal standards around safety and quality should be improved, and be the same across all tenures, including temporary accommodation.

Finally, underpinning all this is our country’s lack of council housing. In one of the richest countries in the world 300,000 people are homeless on any given night. There are nearly 140,000 children in temporary accommodation, without a secure place to call home. A stable home is the foundation of a healthy life, and the lack of a secure home can lead to problems with employment, health and education. The selling off of council houses through the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme, coupled with rising house prices, has meant that more and more people are having to rely on the private rented sector, which has poorer conditions, is less secure, and is much more expensive. Parties have all committed to building new homes, but if we don’t build the right type of homes this won’t solve the problem. We need government investment in a huge public house building programme that should aim to deliver 3.1 million council homes over 20 years.

ACORN is a union representing renters across England and Wales, you can read their housing asks of the next government here.

Thank you for reading my letter - if you are elected, will you argue for these changes our communities need? I would be interested to hear back from you with your thoughts on why our housing system is so broken, and what you think we should do to fix it.

To read our demands in full, visit https://www.acorntheunion.org.uk/election_2024

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