Support Renters. Cancel the Rent
In these difficult times Labour’s leadership has taken a dangerous step back. Instead of calling for rents to be cancelled during the pandemic they are saying rents should be deferred – to be paid back later. This seems to be a craven capitulation to pressure from landlords. Renters are likely to be among the poorest in Britain. They should not be made to put up with further hardship.
Below are two letters showing the anger of rank and file members at this gesture
Liverpool Walton Constituency Labour Party Executive
members have written this letter to Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner.
Dear Keir and Angela,
Members of our CLP have contacted us to register their alarm at the recent statement diluting Labour’s position on protection for renters. We have consulted with our Executive Committee and we are united in sharing the members’ concerns.
Our members are working hard in community initiatives across the constituency delivering food and medicine to those in need during the pandemic. Many people in receipt of help are low-paid renters.
We believe that moving from a position of rent suspension to one of rent deferral under pressure from landlords is an unnecessary and wrong change of policy. This is, after all, our natural voting base and we shouldn’t take them for granted.
Millions of working people have been furloughed by their employers on 80% of their earnings. People in precarious work or on Universal Credit already struggle to pay the rent in private accommodation. Labour’s new position of rent deferral would mean that they would end up indebted to their landlord to the tune of thousands of pounds through no fault of their own. This would have long-term and serious implications. It should also be remembered that many of the people we clap every Thursday evening are themselves low-paid and in private accommodation. What kind of reward would indebtedness be for their efforts during this crisis?
Renters could be trapped in a spiral of increasing poverty. The Labour Party should be a beacon of light in troubled times, a party standing up for the interests of working people. We should not be the party of landlords over renters.
We ask that you reinstate our original policy, one of really having their back.
In solidarity.
Liverpool Walton CLP Executive members
Letter signed by thousands of Labour Party members. Add your name now
cc: Thangam Debbonaire MP, Keir Starmer MP
On the Subject of Rent and COVID-19:
Across the United Kingdom, in every single one of your constituencies, there are private renters.
These private renters are key workers. They are workers for the NHS, for supermarkets, across all essential services. They are the workers that you wish to centre your post-pandemic economy around protecting.
They are economically precarious. Many face destitution, only shortly delayed by government initiatives, due to a loss of work, due to a reduction in work, and due in some cases to being furloughed, with a 20% pay drop.
The government strategies are either failing in the immediate term or are setting up failure further down the road. Deferrals do not confront the loss of income experienced by private renters, nor do delaying the eviction process. Universal credit is too slow moving and not even nearly enough to keep landlords from demanding rent.
Unfortunately private renters cannot with much confidence look to the Labour Party for comfort. While reforms to Universal Credit are welcomed, the Labour Party's revised position of rent deferrals does not help us as workers. It simply pushes the problem down the road.
If a worker misses out on three months worth of income, and has to pay that back over 2 years, that is a 12% increase of rent that must be paid, in the worst recession in centuries. Your solutions simply are not good enough. You are failing renters.
We call on the Labour Party to pressure the government to:
1. Cancel, at the tenant's request, payments of rent, for any tenant experiencing any drop in income.
2. Cover, at the tenant's request, utility payments, for any tenant experiencing any drop in income.
3. Halt all eviction processes due to failure to produce rent until employment stabilises.
There are already plans initiated in America to do this. Consider the model proposed by Democratic Party representative, Ilhan Omar. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/17/ilhan-omar-rent-mortgage-bill-coronavirus-pandemic)
There are no excuses.
The government has bailed out hundreds of companies.
The government has bailed out banks.
It's time for the people's bailout. Cancel the rent.
Sign at the bottom here:
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