Tenant Voice Programme

Empowering tenants in Scotland to speak out and exercise their rights.

Funding at a glance
Amount: £296,369
Approved: 2019
Timescale: 6 years
Status: Funding in progress

Project description
This project is supporting tenants to understand their rights and responsibilities, feel confident in exercising them, and feel empowered to speak out about their experiences. It links localised community organising in Edinburgh and Glasgow with national campaigning on Scottish PRS legislation.

The project has had significant national campaign successes on different pieces of legislation that have dramatically improved tenant experience in Scotland. It successfully engages a large number of renters.

Living Rent is a tenants’ union, founded in 2015, that supports renters in Scotland. Its core aim is to promote tenants’ ownership and leadership. It focuses on areas in Edinburgh and Glasgow but has groups in other parts of Scotland.

Using a community organising model to bring together and empower tenants across the West of England Combined Authority.

Funding at a glance

Amount: £185,698
Approved: 2019
Status: Funding complete
Timescale: 5 years

Project description
The Fair Renting Campaign (FRC) is funded to community organise in Bristol around the PRS, engaging with tenants to maintain a core group of leaders and a wider campaign of supporters.

FRC has achieved key influencing successes locally, in particular influencing activity around the affordability of the private rented sector through Bristol Council’s Living Rent Commission. The campaign is led by renters, with a tenant leadership team directing all project work, alongside a wider network of supporters and campaign activists.

Shelter is a well-known national housing charity that has been operating since the 1960s. Alongside its national campaign work, Shelter runs 11 local hubs and additional services in Wales and Scotland.

Empowering tenants in Greater Manchester to speak out and exercise their rights.

Funding at a glance
Amount: £33,746
Approved: 2023
Timescale: 18 months
Status: Funding in progress

Project description
Building on the work of our Fair Housing Futures project, the Community Organiser project at Shelter aims to organise a campaign with private renters, supporting them to develop skills, work collectively, and hold decision makers to account. Work on the project is directly informed by tenant experiences, with tenants choosing what the project should focus its efforts on.

The project is campaigning on key asks, developed through conversations with tenants, and seeks to achieve change at local and regional level in Greater Manchester.

Creating lasting structures to engage and empower tenants in Greater Manchester, and influence key aspects of local, regional and national PRS policy.

Funding at a glance
Amount: £386,618
Approved: 2019
Timescale: 6 years
Status: Funding in progress

Project description
This project advocates for the rights of tenants in Greater Manchester by engaging with tenants as members of the Greater Manchester Tenants Union and working with them to deliver change.

The project has been successful in supporting tenants to speak up, work together as a group, and see the value in being part of a tenant movement. It’s established itself as a key stakeholder and local representative group and secured policy commitments from the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and ongoing agreement that tenants will be involved in developing private rented sector policies in the area.

Currently, GMTU is continuing to build on and develop its earlier work, maintaining existing groups, expanding to new areas, and mobilising local groups to influence local, regional, and national government.

Connecting renters with local authorities so that issues are better understood, tenants’ voices are clearly heard, and local authority practice is improved.

Funding at a glance
Amount: £369,856
Approved: 2018
Timescale: Seven years

Project description
Renters’ Rights London (RRL) is funded to promote the voice of private renters in multiple London boroughs, aiming to improve local authority approaches to and regulation of the PRS by increasing contact with tenants vulnerable to harm. It is hosted by Camden Federation of Private Tenants (CFPT).

The project engages with highly marginalised renters in several boroughs of London, and then brings their views to local powerholders. The project is reactive in its influencing approach, taking advantage of opportunities in different local authorities as they arise.

CFPT is one of the longest-running organisations working with private tenants and one of the few that focuses solely on this group. It began its work in Camden but now operates across multiple London boroughs.

Strengthening the voice of private renters in Northern Ireland.

Funding at a glance
Amount: £328,266 
Approved: 2019
Timescale: 6 years
Status: Funding in progress

Project description
Renters Voice directly involve tenants in influencing current and future PRS legislation in Northern Ireland. All activity is directed by and carried out by renters, who sit on the project’s core steering group.

The project has successfully influenced multiple changes to the PRS in Northern Ireland, including legislation to improve the private rented sector and on the cost of living crisis. Renters have built close ties to government powerholders.

Housing Rights is a leading housing advice organisation in Northern Ireland. It seeks to deliver frontline support and drive systemic change in two ways: first, by advising both tenants and landlords/letting agents, and second, by using its strong relationships with the government of Northern Ireland to push for change in policy and practice.

Supporting private rented sector tenants in London to have their stories heard.

Funding at a glance
Amount: £268,764
Approved: 2019
Timescale: 6 years
Status: Funding in progress

Project description
This project is influencing changes to policy and practice in the borough of Westminster, targeting powerholders in Westminster City Council. It engages renters to direct the project and make their voices heard through a core steering group, and has produced key published outputs that set out the challenges renters face and the changes they need to see at local and national level. The project supports tenants to influence policy and practice, creating more opportunities for them to do so on their own terms.

Z2K is a small but well-established London charity that focuses on fighting and preventing poverty through casework and campaigning and amplifying the voices of people on low incomes.

Influencing national policy change using research, focus groups and tenant engagement to ensure tenants’ voices are heard.

Funding at a glance
Amount: £393,380
Approved: 2019
Timescale: 6 years
Status: Funding in progress

Project description
Tenants Out Front (TOF) is funded to involve tenants in national debates about PRS policy and practice, aiming to improve the PRS through reactive influencing and tenant engagement. It is hosted by Citizens Advice (CA).

TOF targets issues that have current political attention, adapting to the ever-changing political landscape and promoting tenant voice swiftly and tactically as opportunities arise. Its overall focus is on improving security of tenure, and addressing debt issues for renters, driven by unaffordable rents.

The methodology of involving tenants varies depending on the nature of the problem and the tenants the project is seeking to involve, with a general goal of bringing renter’s voices directly to government.

Citizens Advice is one of the UK’s best-known charities. The Nationwide Foundation funds the national charity, which operates 259 independent offices throughout the UK. The organisation supports tens of thousands of renters each year, and renters’ rights are one of its primary focuses, so it has an in-depth understanding of renters’ experiences.