Disaffected landlords are to try and launch a mass boycott of the businesses that support Shelter, starting with B&Q and moving on to Marks & Spencer, with others to come.
Last night Shelter paid tribute to the two named businesses, while B&Q said that Shelter was the right organisation for it to work with.
The National Landlords Alliance is starting its protest with DIY chain B&Q, but will be targeting other stores in due course, including Marks & Spencer, which has contributed millions towards Shelter.
B&Q has helped fund Shelter since last year, and this Christmas plans to raise £25,000 through sales of dolls where at least £2 will go towards Shelter.
Some landlords have already written to B&Q to warn them that they will no longer be making any purchases there.
They include Dr Ros Beck who told B&Q in her letter: “I am a private landlord who has known for some time that B&Q has been helping to fund Shelter. So far, I have chosen to ignore this unpalatable fact, but frankly I have had enough now.”
She says that Shelter claims to help people get housing: “Well, frankly, the only way they can do that is by persuading private landlords to take the risk of housing homeless people – as there is practically no social housing available for this purpose.
“In addition to allegedly helping people into housing we have also heard how they and others ‘help’ tenants remain in their housing by informing them that they can wait for the bailiffs in cases of eviction – a process which is ruinous and devastating for landlords.
“You might think that given the fact that we are the only housing providers in a position to help with homelessness that they would build positive relationships with us in order to facilitate this.
“They do not do this, however.
“Instead, they push a relentless anti private landlord agenda.
“I have asked that they rename themselves as they provide no shelter, whilst demonising those of us who do.”
Her letter to B&Q continues: “Considering all of this, you really need to remove your support for this organisation.
“I have already decided to no longer shop at B&Q for the materials needed for my large portfolio of houses in south Wales.
“There is a Wickes practically next to my B&Q, as well as a Howdens nearby, so this will have no effect on my business.
“And as more and more landlords are alerted to this – something which is happening at the moment – you are going to lose the custom of your loyal landlord base because of what amounts to an (unintentional, I am sure) betrayal of your customers.”
The National Landlords Alliance was set up by Liverpool landlord Larry Sweeney, partly in protest against the existing landlord associations. It says it does not sell training courses or “get into bed with local authorities” to the detriment of members.
Yesterday evening, Shelter’s director of fundraising Andy Harris told EYE: “Shelter’s partnership with B&Q provides vital funding for a specialist team of DIY Skills Advisers, as well as much-needed support for our other vital frontline services, helping thousands of people every year.
“The B&Q DIY Skills Advisers are located across the country, and provide practical help to people settling into a new home after a period of homelessness, as well as supporting others to stay in their current home by making essential improvements.
“This includes teaching basic DIY skills, such as how to paint walls, in addition to carrying out key jobs like fitting extra security locks.
“Thanks to B&Q’s generous support, this service alone has helped almost 1,400 people to create homes where they can feel happier, safer and more secure.”
He said of the relationship with Marks & Spencer: “M&S has been supporting Shelter’s helpline for 13 years, and donate 5% of each sale from its Festive Collection.
“In that time M&S have raised an incredible £3.4m for Shelter’s emergency helpline – allowing us to answer hundreds of thousands of calls from people faced with homelessness or bad housing.
“Last year, this crucial contribution funded every call answered by the helpline over the Christmas period.”
A B&Q spokesperson told us: “At B&Q we believe everyone should have a home that they can feel good about and recognise that this is not the case for many people.
“As the leading UK wide charity tackling the issues that impact both poor housing and homelessness, we believe that Shelter is the right organisation for us to work with.
“Our work with Shelter funds a team of DIY Skills Advisers (DIYSAs) and supports Shelter frontline advice services.
“We regularly review the impact our partnership is having and we are happy with how Shelter is investing the funds that we donate.”
Other backers of Shelter include British Gas and Nationwide.
About time.
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mmm rightmove bash estate agents and we don’t boycott them…. deserve all we get.
Do shelter give out v.i.p shelters to estate agents that go bust due to their Dickensian policies of villianising the normal bloke in the street.?
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How will all you selfless landlords survive in the absence of M&S meal deals? We’re all praying for you, god bless and thank you eternally for kindly stiffing the proles, your generosity knows no bounds
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Good to see .. well done Ros Beck and National Landlord’s Alliance, something I’ll get behind myself also for what it’s worth
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“How to paint walls”???? Um….????
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Yep if they work for shelter they probably don’t know one end of a paint brush from another. Lets all help shelter – you use the fluffy end in the paint!
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Most people that donate to Shelter (wrongly) believe the money is going to make a real difference to homelessness. I wonder how they’d feel if they learned that part of it goes to teaching people how to paint walls.
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It would be far better for BQ and M&S to support local charities in the communities where the stores are. These charities provide accommodation for the homeless or support help with the many issues the homeless face.
Why don’t they support the many servicemen and woman on the street.
Shelter maybe when it started cared about the homeless but unfortunately it as become to big and is now just a marketing machine which pays huge salaries.
BQ and the likes have been sucked into this, thinking it will reflect on them being a caring company etc…
COMPANIES need to wake up and do the research just because it’s saying its a charity does not make it a good one.
It constantly posts pictures of mould etc and always blames the landlord. Never does It mention how a tenant might be contributing to condensation.
It supports taxing landlords to bankruptcy via SECTION24
It supports tenants from hell remaining in the property
It encourages tenants to wait for the bailiffs
It refuses to work with the PRS for the good of tenants
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Every little bit helps.
Shelter have no respect for Landlords or agents and in my view use anything they can for political or publicity reasons and not for the greater good of tenants.
I am happy to stay away from B+Q and M+S. Happy also to ensure Landlords are away of the support they give to Shelter
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What a brilliant idea, I’m up for it, will be constructing a similar letter today to forward to all of our landlords. Let’***** these businesses where it hurts until they stop feeding the shelter beast! Letter needs to be subtle not bullying like the shelter campaigns.
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What a great letter – should the likes of M&S expect my custom when they are supporting an organisation with a hard core socialist agenda which in turn is harming my company and my customers? I am fully in favour of supporting the homeless but not via a vehicle with a political anti landlord agenda. I will be buying my lunchtime sandwich elsewhere!
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Has anyone managed to establish how much of the cash raised by Shelter has spent on accommodation for the homeless, how much on administration and how much on political lobbying?
The Charities commission have an obligation to ensure money raised for a cause is spent on the cause not on party political propaganda.
If Shelter is failing to fulfil its brief or properly describe its activities, that is a matter for ASA and Charities commission, If Charities commission are failing to regulate a misuse iof charities status that is a matter for government to investigate.
If the 9 year old who donated the collection from her grandfather’s funeral believed the cash would provide a warm bed for the night for someone currently sleeping rough, that 9 year old can expect the money not to be spent on funding a class war orchestrated by people earning over 4 times the average wage.
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As far as I understand (and that, which is widely publicised), Shelter do not directly provide ANY form of accommodation to anyone. It’s basically a lobbying group to ‘call for a better system’ for tenants/homeless.
It’s a ****** useless organisation. They should at least be out on the streets at Xmas spending some of their donations on housing the homeless.
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“Shelter do not directly provide ANY form of accommodation to anyone.”
Sorry to have to correct you their top execs have very nice homes paid for out of donations made to Shelter from their salaries, (the top execs get paid a combined £750k+ pa).
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I fully support these guys and have written my own letters. My trade account put tens of thousands through B&Q every year – not any more! They can live without it, I’m sure.
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B&Q and Screwfix are part of the Kingfisher Group. I wrote to the CEO of Kingfisher (Veronique Laury) in early August to explain that they were shooting themselves in the foot because supporting Shelter was helping to drive their customers out of business. I didn’t even get an acknowledgement.
A few days ago I also wrote to their Nick Lakin, again explaining the situation and how Shelter are a faux charity that do not house anyone. As yet no response, and whilst I don’t expect to get one, I must be fair and say it’s early days.
I get the impression they don’t care one bit which is odd. Kingfisher are under pressure to turn round falling profits and landlords spend a heck of a lot of money on renovation and refurbishment. I wonder what Kingfisher shareholders will think about this campaign!
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To not receive a reply to a letter of complaint shows just how much contempt B&Q has for its customers.
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I fully support these landlords. Personally I am sick and tired of the that hand-wringing self-righteous organisation constantly attacking private sector landlords, most of whom are decent people. It’s of interest to note that their campaigning CEO receives a salary of over £120,000. I think I could ‘care’ if someone paid me over £120000 a year.
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It’s a lot more than £120k. The average the Director helped themselves to was over £127k to end of March 2017. As CEO she’ll be higher than the average by some margin and they’ve no doubt awarded themselves a pay rise since then anyway.
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Shelter have £15m in the bank, the CEO is on £130k (plus hefty bonus no doubt). Really awful organisation who also employ chuggers to bully people into signing DDs. Always tell the chuggers who they are really working for.
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I have 400 properties under my agency control, I’m going to advise the landlords to follow this path
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How do we get to the whole PRS and ask them to boycott BnQ and screwfix. At £50 a property per week the PRS spends £250,000,000 a week on building goods and £13 billion a year. We are their biggest client by far and we can do huge damage if we follow this approach thereby getting leverage to halt the assaults on us.
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I only have a few properties, but regularly use B&Q. I will do my bit. Boycott. #BBQ It’s always bothered me how Shelter misrepresent themselves; they’re just a political lobbying group. A well paid one. I’ll let my property contacts know about #BBQ. Of course, this will only apply to Landlords in the PRS who look after their properties, and have good relationships with longterm tenants – that’s most of us in the PRS. Despite what Shelter would have you think.
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I can live without B&Q and Screwfix for there are plenty of alternative suppliers but where do I get my underwear now that I no longer shop at M&S?
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The RLA should reconsider its support for B&Q as it issues B&Q trade cards to its members. I did email the RLA as a member about the bullying of landlords – they could not even bother to reply. Looks as if I need to ditch the RLA
How about a strap line of “SHAME ON YOU B&Q”
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Don’t forget to join The Landlords Alliance instead for a more direct-action approach.
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“…key jobs like fitting extra security locks.”
This pun was too good to go unrecognised.
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I’m all for staying away from B&Q….
But where am I going to get my ‘2 dine for a tenner’ meal from now!?!
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all the supermarkets run similar promotions
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Homeless woman: “I think I might die tonight If I can’t find somewhere warm to sleep”
Dr Ros Beck: “I have already decided to no longer shop at B&Q for the materials needed for my large portfolio of houses in south Wales.”
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The woman might not be homeless were it not for Shelter’s support of policies designed to increase homelessness.
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Homesless womoan: going to Shelter will not get a roof over her head. Shelter, despite their name, have never provied a roof over anyones head. Oooops sorry I’m wrong Shelter do provide nice warm homes for their executives who share ~£750,000+ in salaries each year out of your donations
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Shelter is not their name. It is ‘Shelter, The National Campaign for Homeless People Limited’. They don’t have this name on their website, in breach of the law. Nor is it on their emails (based on PDFs linked to on here), again illegal.
Shelter Limited is another company based in Manchester and I believe it has nothing to do with the company discussed here.
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Do you think you might just have missed the point Dude? It is Shelter that are leading or backing the attacks that are causing the loss of tens of thousands of homes from the rented sector. Perhaps the homeless woman might ask “Why have Shelter made my landlord sell my home as I now have nowhere to go and might die from the cold”.
Get real, understand what it happening!
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Now, ironically, the two things that they offer above, the DIY Skills people and the helpline, those are the things Shelter should concentrate on. By hurling themselves in to the political arena and trying to cause issues with the PRS, they are making things worse for the people they, presumably, were created to help!
If they actually helped the homeless, or provided housing, or secured deposits, guarantors, anything like that then I am sure Agents would be happy to support them, and their partners. But they don’t. They bully, point fingers and push through ridiculous ideas without looking at the long term impact of their actions.
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I too will no longer buy from B&Q or Screwfix.
I’ve written to there CEO Veronique Laury (veronique.laury@kingfisher.com) and the CEO of B&Q, Graham Bell (graham.bell@b-and-q.co.uk) explaining to them why I am boycotting there businesses. I would every Landlord to do the same
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You can get a very vague idea of what Shelter spends your money on here https://www.property118.com/is-shelter-a-charity/#
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You can pledge support for the boycott of B&Q and Screwfix here https://www.property118.com/need-wake-smell-coffee/#comments
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Plenty of other businesses brown-nosing here. Barton Wilmore, British Gas, CBRE, Nationwide Building Society, All Bar One. etc etc
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I understand that Shelter have been taking direct action against some letting agents by getting members of the public to call them.
Given Shelter have 100 shops in the UK has anyone done a HM Land Registry search on the freeholders of these shops, if lots of agents/landlords then wrote to the freeholders it would be playing Shelter at their own game. Just a thought!
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I’m one man branch I make a profit not easy but I make a
profit
Some online agent buy me 10 mill 🙂
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I never knew about B&Q and Screwfix donating to the immoral charity called Shelter, yes I have called Shelter immoral because they tell tenants to screw the private landlord over EVEN WHEN THE TENANT IS IN THE WRONG! That’s immoral and wrong, behavior like that should not be supported. Shelter are anti landlord and yet they do not provide any accommodation themselves, they constantly try to take unreasonable liberties against the landlord which in the long term will do the tenant no favours. Instead of attacking the private landlord they should be attacking the Government policy causes the housing problem’s. Shelter are IMMORAL AND SHOULD NOT BE SUPPORTED and I will not be shopping at B&Q or Screwfix now that I know of the support that they give to this immoral charity.
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It’s high time the public was made aware as to the skulduggery going on against landlords and how these pernicious actions only make it harder and more expensive for landlords to provide homes at affordable rents for tenants. If you were interested in helping people in housing you would (If you had a clue how it all works) embrace the PRS who provide 5,000,000 good households for families through thick and thin, attack after attack, costly piece of useless legislation after another, all the while raising the cost of providing rental homes therefore rents. The idea that a company we pay over £100,000,000 a week to for materials can go behind our back and support our enemies that are intent on doing us incredible harm all the while pretending to be helping the homeless is bizarre and has to stop. Double standards and no standards should be as exposed as should the faux charity Shelter who carry on their destructive rhetoric which destroys housing available for the less fortunate yet sucks £60,000,000 from the government BnQ M&S and others with such ease, yet little is gained from this largess other than families being evicted as a direct result of Shelters actions. Immoral, low life, spongers
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I have supported this campaign to expose Shelter for the housing wrecking socialist propagandists they really are. I have also signed up to the newly formed Landlords Alliance.
We as the landlord community must now put a stop to all this negative bias and toxic misrepresentation of the PRS and push back hard.
I have written to the CEO’s of both B&Q and Screwfix withdrawing my business. Next up, will be M&S followed by Nationwide and Birmingham Mid Shires, both BTL lenders!! I am amazed that these main stream lenders could get into bed with an organisation that so roundly and unjustly condemns the PRS.
Time to say things straight to the likes of Shelter and their naive corporates , Gov, LA’s, ad nauseam, that they have misunderstood the PRS and it is their lack of due diligence and comprehensive failure to understand the sector that is ruining a vital housing service. The consequences now becoming ever clearer will be theirs, and those that will suffer most will be hoards of unfortunate people unable to find a home.
We must hold them to account.
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What the hell is wrong with you people?
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I have read your article with interest.
First of all, it seems slightly unfair to blame Shelter for the fact that local authorities are likely to deny long-term support to anyone who leaves their property before the bailiffs evict them by finding such a person intentionally homeless. Numerous Parliamentary briefings have been produced and the Homeless Code of Guidance is rather clear that where possession action is inevitable, a local authority should not wait until the bailiffs arrive.
However, and I can see that landlords are not aware of this fact (because if they are, then the utterances produced might be considered spurious and serving a hidden agenda), if a local authority denies a request for help from a tenant who is threatened with losing their home, the only remedy available to this tenant is a judicial review. Judicial reviews are not cheap, meaning they tend to cost a lot more than any possession order. Maybe, in the spirit of mutual cooperation and understanding (not only because it’s almost Christmas), disgruntled landlords should consider founding their own charity to cover the cost of such proceedings for their tenants? This might yield much better results than not buying a Christmas sandwich from M&S…
Secondary, I fail to see how informing occupiers of their statutory right to have their tenancy terminated by judiciary interference is a bad thing? Everyone likes to know their rights, don’t we? It may come as news to some but we do not live in Dickensian times anymore and tenants do not have to rely solely on the benevolence of property owners. It is fair and just (and recognised as such by the sovereign Parliament of the United Kingdom) that one individual should not deprive another individual of a roof over their head without at least some degree of judiciary scrutiny. Nevertheless, this process can be very stressful and I do not doubt that the vast majority of tenants would like to avoid it. However, unless their deposit is returned to them before they move out, it is not uncommon for them not to be able to find another property and have to rely on assistance from the council (see the first two paragraphs).
It is here that I must inform you that the level of judiciary scrutiny has been severely reduced over the years, so, even though many of you obviously do not agree with me, the fact is that it is easier these days to evict a tenant than it was 40 years ago. All a private landlord has to do is serve a two months’ notice on a prescribed from (available on the Internet free of charge) and apply for a court order which is automatic (also possible on-line). The tenant bears the cost. If a private landlord is not capable of following such a straightforward procedure if they have to, then I respectfully suggest that the only viable alternative might be to explore other avenues of investment.
In the spirit of Christmas I wish all landlords all the best, may they be blessed with good tenants (and vice versa). It saddens me that we will not meet in B&Q this year where I will be undoubtedly buying my Christmas tree from. My Christmas food shopping is going to be done at M&S. Just a little gesture to say thank you for supporting such a brilliant charity. Oh, obviously, I will get my all Christmas cards from Shelter like I always do.
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“All a private landlord has to do is serve a two months’ notice on a prescribed from (available on the Internet free of charge) and apply for a court order which is automatic (also possible on-line). The tenant bears the cost”
Respectfully, you do not know what you’re talking about.
Even if that were the case, the obtaining of the Order (which takes a few days to arrive in hard, stamped copy), does not mean the tenant has to vacate…they *should*, but cannot be forced. Usually Bailiffs are 10-30 weeks behind on their workload. There is no Order for Costs made against a tenant with a S.21.
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It looks like you get a lot more than Christmas cards from Shelter.
The fact that eviction was harder 40 years ago is irrelevant. The idea that landlords should pay for for judicial reviews of the interaction between tenants and councils is as preposterous as you are pompous.
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Hello Pea
For the purpose of this response I shall assume that you do not work for Shelter. It would be nice if you would confirm that, and as I intend to pose some questions to you I’d be grateful if you would give truthful answers to those too. I’m not going to comment much about Shelter giving advice as I wouldn’t actually mind if that’s all they did. It is the other underhand stuff that goes on in Courts that I have heard many stories about that trouble me. However as I have not experienced it myself I shall move on to issues which I feel show the ‘charity’ more in its true light.
In respect to where you intend to do your Christmas shopping, good for you. You have the right to shop wherever you wish. So it’s a bit ironic that what you’re complaining about is landlord’s exercising this same choice.
Q1. Can we agree that this is somewhat hypocritical?
Now, one topic that has been discussed quite a lot on this site is Shelter’s attacks on the letting agent Ludlow Thompson. Shelter apparently believe that the company has a ‘No DSS’ policy, which I believe the agent strongly denied. If Shelter truly believed this policy existed then they could have interacted and had discussions about it but they chose to take another course of action. They wrote to all their supporters encouraging them to phone the company with a view to reading out a 2 minute script to whomever answered. The intent then was to take up staff time and block telephone lines. I believe Shelter claimed that thousands of their supporters had made these calls which must have caused considerable disruption to the company. Things like this can make businesses go bust, jobs would be lost, and of course people trying to get through because they want a place to rent would not be able to. Whether the company had such a policy or not is pretty irrelevant as it happens. Many lenders do not allow benefit tenants and there was a recent case where a landlord was told to either evict her benefit tenant or remortgage away from the lender. So you see it is frequently the lender that makes the rules and this attack was not only wrongly directed but was harassment.
Q2. Do you think that it is OK for a ‘charity’ to launch such a militant attack on a company going about its legal business?
The next question relates to a good landlord buddy of mine. It happened a couple of years ago when he was travelling on the tube. As one does when sitting on the train he looked around and at the high level ads. One was for Shelter showing a young very disheveled woman standing in a horrible looking property, the kitchen as I remember. The wording of the ad said that this woman’s landlord was going to evict her just before Christmas. A terrible and lamentable situation which would surely have many opening their wallets to assist the ‘charity’ to fight such a terrible landlord. My friend wasn’t impressed however. The woman was his tenant, he’d never seen her looking so scruffy, it wasn’t his property and he definitely wasn’t evicting her! Naturally he went round to see her with an aim to find out what was going on and it turns out she does a bit of modeling for photo shoots. Pea the whole thing was a set, it was fictional, it was designed to con money out of the public.
Q3. Do you think it acceptable for Shelter to commit fraud and extortion to boost their income?
Lastly (for now) the Private Rented Sector is contracting by between 4000 and 4500 properties per month because of the multiple attacks on it. Shelter not only support the attacks but are leading many of them. If there was alternative accommodation such as massive amounts of council houses ready for new occupants it would be a different story, but there aren’t. When S24 (the restriction of mortgage interest relief) was announced in 2015 several landlords individually wrote to Campbell Robb, who was then the CEO of the organisation. The letters correctly forecast that many landlords would quit the sector and it would result in increase in homelessness. The response from Mr Robb was that Shelter supported the tax attacks because most people want to own their own homes. Frankly that was an extraordinary answer as within a couple of sentences he’d moved Shelter from being an organisation, which most people think exists to help keep a roof over people’s heads, to one that supports wealthier owner-occupier aspiring individuals and families! Later Shelter’s blog completely ignores Mr Robb’s views (probably because the blogger had not heard them) and comes up with totally different reasons for supporting S24. It admits that rents will rise due to the change. It goes on to say that not many landlords will be affected but at the same time suggests that a meaningful amount of tax would be raised that ‘could’ be put towards increasing housing benefit. The blogger makes no suggestion as to why he thinks that Government might do this, and is a second expression of supporting rent inflation. So why would Shelter support the tax change? Here are some facts. Shelter has been receiving backing from one of the biggest Build-To-Rent providers in the country – L&G. The company will benefit massively from rent increases and the reduction of competition, and let’s not forget that as a corporate entity they will not be subject to S24. This is a comment from the last published Shelter accounts….. ” Legal & General have collaborated with us on the development of our policy campaigns “.
Q4. A nice easy one to finish off with…. Do you think there is something not quite above board with this set of circumstances? I hope to hear back from you Pea. Happy Christmas to you in case I don’t.
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I wonder if Pea’s surname is ‘Brain’??
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Or maybe Pea is their surname
First and middle names being “Taking The”
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This article explains why everyone should boycott Shelter itself: https://www.property118.com/boycott-shelter/#comment-108391
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Shared from the Portsmouth Landlords Association: http://pdpla.com/pdpla-news/news-articles/item/485-no-shelter-for-b-q-from-angry-landlords
We have long been aware of Shelter’s hate campaign and determination to be adversarial with landlords, please support local grass-roots organisations for the homeless. PDPLA have worked closely with local charities to try to find homes for a number of vulnerable adults. Contrary to popular belief most landlords care about their tenants and want to provide good housing.
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Thanks for the link Charlotte.
Well done, PDPLA! Your members will now know that:
“Shelter is a charity, but that does not mean they do anything specific, just that they qualify for some useful tax breaks at our expense like every other charity.
• It provides no housing and no financial assistance to the homeless, at best they provide advice and at worst they are seen as a politically motivated campaign group”
Other associations please copy.
To see other damning articles about Shelter: https://www.property118.com/category/shelter/
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