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In case you missed it, Saturday's Guardian ran a big piece in the Weekend Magazine on Generation Rent and our allies in Manchester, Bristol and North London - read it here.
And today we've published analysis that shows rents have risen by 80% in the past 15 years - more than twice the rate of inflation, and worth an extra £30 a week that renters are paying in runaway rents.
While renters are losing out on £1500 a year thanks to successive negligent governments, retirees have managed to win themselves over £800 a year from the government in non-means-tested benefits. There's no reason renters can't do the same and win a better deal from the government - particularly if our older relatives can help us out.
Please keep sharing this campaign - every donation gets us closer to a better housing market!
We have started tweeting our thanks to supporters who have donated £10 or more to our crowdfunding campaign - make sure you email us with your handle so you get your tweet.
At the time of writing, a total of 226 kind people have pledged £13,625 to keep Generation Rent campaigning. This includes a number of organisations who we would like to thank. They are:
- Garden Court Chambers
- Communication Workers Union
- GMB London Region (£500)
- GMB Holborn Branch (£200)
We're at the halfway stage of our campaign and although we have reached our minimum thanks to the generosity of our supporters we still have a long way to go to reach our £60,000 target.
However, we can announce today that Generation Rent has been awarded a grant from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd. The grant of £45,500 will support our campaign for rent controls ahead of the Greater London elections in 2016.
The Trust exists to correct imbalances of power and strengthen the hand of organisations striving for reform. As the grant is intended for this particular campaign, it does not count towards our wider crowdfunding effort. It is nevertheless a huge boost to our organisation.
Every pound we receive takes us a step closer to a private rented sector that works for everyone. Please donate today.
One of our priorities if we meet our crowdfunding target is to ensure that the next Mayor of London is elected on a platform that promises to take real and immediate action on affordability of housing in London.
Today we have launched our housing manifesto for London, which sets out new powers that the Mayor should campaign for, such as rent control, and policies like putting pressure on developers to build homes for ordinary Londoners and prioritising the building of genuinely affordable housing on publicly owned land.
We have also published research on what areas in and outside London cost the least to rent in and commute into London. It doesn't make sense for London workers to move out of the city - but only just.
Please join the campaign by emailing the London mayor contenders here.
Thanks to 140 generous sponsors, we now have a total of £9023 pledged. Just £977 more and we can keep Generation Rent going in a voluntary capacity.