The guide includes:

• How to use data to understand your local private rented sector and develop targeted policies
• Tips on starting a new private renters residents association
• How to help renters understand their rights and raise concerns with the council
• Practical ideas to engage landlords, including advice on starting a landlords’ co-operative to provide a fairer lettings agency for both landlords and tenants
• Advice on enforcement powers and examples of councils using them successfully
• How to set up a selective licensing scheme and case studies showing where licensing has had a positive local impact
• Tackling the high cost of energy and financial exclusion sometimes experienced by private renters

Private renting in England: in numbers

• 5 million households are in private rented accommodation
• 40% of private renters pay over half of their net monthly income in rent
• 65% of private renting households have less than £1,500 in savings
• 62% of households in private rented accommodation are headed by someone in full time work
• One in six privately rented homes present a severe threat to health or safety
• 30% of privately rented properties fall short of the decent home standard
• Half a million children live in privately rented homes that are unsafe
• Housing benefit reforms since 2011 have cut the entitlements of 1.9 million privately renting households meaning there is an increasing monthly shortfall between income and rent
• 27% of private renters with children have moved three or more times in the last five years.

You can use the Guide as a starting point for activity through your local party or council. This could include:

• Circulating the guide among members locally
• Organising a local party meeting to discuss how to put it into practice locally
• Meeting and building links with local renters’ groups, or working with existing local organisations to set one up
• Join Generation Rent’s campaign to end ‘no fault’ evictions by organising a petition or street stall
• Lobbying your local authority to put the steps in the Guide into practice