Impact
Our approach is simple
We support vulnerable private renters with their legal, financial and general housing issues, whilst campaigning for the legislation change needed for a more equal housing system that can support them in the first place
Direct Impact
We directly impact vulnerable tenants lives every day as part of our core work and special projects
Housing Advice Centre
The core of our legal support work is carried out by our Housing Advice Centre, assisting vulnerable renters under legal aid.
We helped 168 clients last year. Of the cases concluded during the year, living conditions were improved for 72 clients, 26 clients moved to a better home, we prevented 27 clients being made homeless and made 31 better off financially.
Our success rate at tribunal is 97%.
A4R Wellbeing
A4R Wellbeing is a stand-alone project working with those whose health and wellbeing is affected by their living situation, including housing and loneliness. Since it began in June 2018, Wellbeing has assisted 175 people and trained 55 volunteers as mentors. In the past year, 69% of the goals set by beneficiaries were reached.
Green light Laws
Green Light Laws is a stand alone project for helping tenants whose problems fall outside of legal aid support, such as deposit disputes or rent repayment orders.
We have assisted 36 clients under this project this year.
It’s all about Money
Our financial inclusion programme provides 1 on 1 community money mentors and a programme of money capability workshops helping people budget wisely, maximise income, lower their outgoings and most importantly to stay on track.
We have helped 189 people through the programme across 4 outreach centres in Brent, and have had 10 members of the public graduated as Money Mentors.
Campaigns we’ve influenced
We yearn for a world when our services are no longer needed. That’s why we tirelessly campaign for housing equality, day in, day out
Housing Act 1996
We lobbied MPs and provided amendments to the Housing Bill Committee to limit the damage to tenants’ rights in what became the Housing Act 1996. Amendments included:
The Rent Acts (Maximum Fair Rent) Order 1999
We succeed in having this important act passed, which ensures regulated tenants (elderly renters on fixed incomes) have fair rent increases that are linked to a Retail Price Index (RPI) formula.
Housing Act 2004
This was a big win for us. We succeeded in having the mandatory licensing of large HMOs added to the act, which ensured a minimum living and safety standards in Englands most dangerous homes, and we succeeded in the inclusion of protection for tenants deposits. Before then it was common for tenants to have their deposits wrongfully kept at the end of tenancies with little recourse available.
Energy Act 2011
We joined up with energy groups in an important campaign that resulted in the Energy Act 2011, which outlaws the letting of very inefficient energy-rated properties from 2018. We are still campaigning for further improvements to this policy, but it a huge step in the right direction ensuring the most vulnerable aren’t stuck in inefficient cold homes.
Renters Reform Bill 2019
A4R established a Senior Renters Group to join Generation rent in lobbying for the abolition of shorthold tenancies and the infamous ‘no fault’ s.21 evictions, stressing the anxiety caused to older renters who do not have a secure home for as long as they need it. This has resulted in the Renters Reform Bill 2019 that will remove Section 21 and update legal grounds for possession. Much work still has to be done in ensuring this doesn’t now get sidelined due to COVID, however it’s a big step in the right direction for creating a farer Private Rented Sector.
Organisations we’ve launched
Over the years our expertise has helped us launch two independent organisations who’ve gone on to achieve great things.
Generation Rent
As the longest running private tenants rights organisation in the UK, we’re often contacted by other groups for guidance. When in 2010 we simultaneously discovered a private tenants’ group in Blackpool, and where contacted by a local group in Scarborough, we decided to all team up with the only other known group representing private renters - in Camden - and support each other where we could.
The four organisations started meeting regularly through Conference calls under the ambitious title of the National Private Tenants Organisation, which was formally constituted at a face to face AGM in Birmingham in 2012. Among our national campaigns, Advice for Renters led the calls for better resourced local authority enforcement teams to improve conditions is tenants’ homes, while Scarborough Private Tenants’ Group led the Electrical Safety Campaign which led to a strengthening in the law.
Following a meeting with Nationwide Foundation who were interested in our ambitious plans, we were offered substantial funding to give the NPTO a firm financial base with its own staff. The organisation now trades as Generation Rent and has gained UK wide recognition for its campaigning work since
Brent Community Action Network
Brent Community Advice Network (BCAN) is a network of community organisations that offer information, advice and guidance to people living or working in the borough of Brent
We started to develop BCAN under the auspices of Brent Advice Partnership in 2016. Keen to build on the partnerships with established advice agencies in the borough, we reached out for beyond this to include smaller organisations and community groups.
Many of the groups we discovered did not operate within a conventional structure. Some had no funding or premises, so all contact was are initially by ‘phone, with venues found if they needed to meet. Referrals to these groups tended not to come via normal referral routes, but from the local café, club or prayer group.
These groups provide an invaluable service for the most vulnerable residents who are often those most in need of help but who aren’t otherwise reached directly by more established agencies like Advice for Renters.
Within a year or so the Network had grown to around sixty groups of various types and size, all with their own strengths and weaknesses, enabling us all to learn from each other through Network Conferences and smaller training and networking events.
Although we are no longer responsible for servicing the Network, (this has since passed to CVS Brent who are better placed now BCAN is much larger) we maintain close working relationships with these Groups and support them in any way we can. We believe the Network has the potential to go beyond traditional inter-agency referrals. We’d like to see a service where advice providers work collaboratively with clients and each other to provide a really holistic service leading to the long-term empowerment of those we serve.