The left-wing political lobbying organisation Generation Rent is being bankrolled by a charity set up by the Nationwide Building Society.
Generation Rent, whose director Alex Hilton stood as a Labour candidate in the last General Election and which has been accused of peddling propaganda, received a grant of £725,000 from the Nationwide Foundation last September.
The grant covers three years and provides “core funding which has so far included support for business development, governance, recruitment and salaries”, says the Nationwide Foundation on its website.
It describes Generation Rent as “the only national, charitable organisation exclusively helping private tenants”.
The Nationwide Foundation does not limit itself to providing funding.
It also helps with training and business planning, and acts as a broker between the organisations to whom it gives grants and the Government – for example, by hosting parliamentary briefings.
When Generation Rent launched its “manifesto” last month, it did so at Westminster, with Labour’s shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds as a main speaker.
The Nationwide Foundation, which stresses its independence from Nationwide itself, nevertheless gets its main funding from the mutual. It also gets office space and equipment from the Nationwide.
It emphasises that “Nationwide Building Society does not necessarily endorse the organisations funded by the Foundation”.
Generation Rent is not hugely forthcoming about its generous sponsor.
On its website, in the “About” section, it is not easy to read the text, which is shown in white over a pale photograph.
However, here it is in black and white: “Generation Rent receives funding from the Nationwide Foundation. The Nationwide Foundation is a registered charity (number 1065552); its main benefactor is Nationwide Building Society. Funding decisions are made by the Nationwide Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which is independent of Nationwide. Nationwide Building Society does not necessarily endorse the organisations funded by the Foundation. Instead it respects the Nationwide Foundation’s right to create its own strategy to tackle social issues.”
Generation Rent’s “manifesto” includes introducing five-year tenancies, during which tenants could not be evicted under Section 21; rent controls; and banning letting agents’ fees.
Longer tenancies, rent controls and a ban on fees are being actively sought by Labour in Westminster, while at Holyrood, Labour is also pressing for the first two; a ban on fees already exists in Scotland.
Here’s how Eye reported the National Landlords Association criticising Generation Rent for spreading propaganda:
https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/generation-rent-accused-spreading-propaganda-manifesto/
Comments (5)
The Nationwide Building Society has not always been so "on the tenants side" and doing all it can to help them, as this article we wrote last year shows:
http://www.lettingfocus.com/blogs/2013/03/nationwide-mortgage-works-housing-benefit-u-turn/
I think, as Eric Walker suggests above, we should be working together to achieve what most of us want: a decent and professional industry, where tenants can feel "at home" in their rented home.
Reading Alex Hilton's post, it sounds to me that working together would actually be a very good thing for those tenants, landlords and agents with pride and dignity.
Hi, I'm Alex Hilton, the director of http://www.generationrent.org
I'll be honest, I was a bit shocked at first by this article but while I disagree with your perspective and inferences, I'd like to leave that to one side. I reckon we might be able to use this opportunity to have a really interesting debate instead.
I am personally left wing, though I left the Labour Party about three years ago and am no longer active in politics. Generation Rent on the other hand isn't left wing.
We are campaigning for reforms to the PRS that will make it sustainable and an attractive sector in which to live. Yes we was letting agent fees to tenants banned, but that's because bad agents can undercut good agents' fees to landlords. By focusing agents' income on landlords, those landlords win market power over the agents so that they have to compete on price and quality, as in every functioning market. This isn't a left wing position, it's a market position.
On rent control, there are some contexts in which that really makes sense. For example, where a landlord deliberately hikes up the rent to get a tenant to leave a property "voluntarily". Some campaigners may well be calling for absolute controls and the Labour Party is campaigning for indexed ceilings to rent increases. My instinct is that merely requiring landlords to state on a contract (and on ads) a maximum increase – whatever it is – would be enough to allow tenants to choose the risk level they are comfortable with. This isn't left wing, it's about making a market work more transparently and effectively.
Security of tenure is important to us and we want the right to a five year tenancy. We don't expect all tenants to take up that right but when people are making decisions about where they live in the context of taking a job or choosing a school for their kids, it's not about flag-waving revolution, it's about family values and labour force mobility. Which we don't think is very left wing at all. And we're certain that if we had a right to 5 year tenure, there would have to be a more streamlined process for evicting tenants at fault, and an exception where a landlord really needed their property back.
We think the reforms we want wouldn't just change the culture among landlords and agents but also among tenants, giving them the possibility of a secure home and putting roots down in a community. These are tenants with pride and dignity. And that leads to landlords and agents, and their properties, being respected.
I'm interested to hear, do your readers think that is left wing?
All the best,
Alex Hilton
Director, Generation Rent
Hi Alex, its commendable that you would come onto a public forum to put your case forward. Answer me this if you will.
In what way do you think banning letting agent fees would stop rogue agents from undercutting the majority of hard working, honest and respectable letting agents and their landlords?
Most areas of the country have already seen a reduction in landlords fees in order for decent agents to remain competitive with the cut price 'here today, gone tomorrow' brigade; at what point do you think an agent has to make the decision whether to close up shop or declare themselves a non profit making business.
What is your fall back position if your proposed rent control has the same effect on the PRS as every other form of rent control in the past 100 years? history tells us that so far all rent control has done is to drive investors out of the market and reduce the number of private homes available for renting. We don't have enough council housing to take up the slack this time nor is it likely that we will build them so thats not an option.
I'm sure your advisors have told you that there is no impediment to creating a 5 year tenancy agreement now – but how would you propose that tenants who breach a 5 year tenancy because they want to move somewhere new be treated? few tenants that we see are prepared to commit to more than 12 months, even though most landlords would welcome it.
My 24 years experience in this industry has shown me that that there are far more disrespectful tenants than there are bad landlords. I've disinstructed myself 4 times in the last 20 years from bad landlords, but I've had to terminate dozens and dozens of tenancies due to a tenants actions; non payment of rent; damage to property; rent to rent activities; defecating in the kitchen sink and more. Exactly how would your proposal to create 5 year tenancy terms alter this type of tenants perspective on how to look after someone else's property, respect where they live and integrate into the community?
Apologies if this is a bit graphic but these are the sort of things that letting agents deal with on a daily basis across the UK.
I sometimes feel that lobby groups generate support rather like a pupil in a school campaigning to be on the school council. No homework, free sweets and wear jeans will get you a following, but it's not exactly constructive.
I think the lettings conundrum needs joined up thinking and what has seemingly become opposing factions need to talk to each other. The reality is that Nationwide's funding has facilitated debate on issues which many agents actually support. Whatever Nationwide's motives, addressing this issue can only be a good thing. These agents I am sure would happily work with Generation Rent in what really counts – lobbying Government to legislate, enforce and police. Without that, it's all just noise.