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Campaigns and organisations in the UK

ACORN

​

a community-based union with branches growing across England and Wales, Acorn tackles injustice with a major focus on housing – preventing evictions, winning repairs in dangerous properties, and stopping banks from discriminating against tenants on housing benefit.

Defend Council

Housing

a longstanding campaign organisation set up in the late 1990s to defend council housing in the UK from privatisation. It began primarily as the main national vehicle against Conservative and Labour Government’s stock transfer policy to sell off council estates to housing associations but has expanded its remit over time to focus on all aspects of social housing.

Homes for All - Axe the Act

began life in late 2015 as the ‘Kill The Housing Bill’ campaign to bring together campaigners, groups, trade unions and anyone else who want to fight the current Conservative Government’s Housing and Planning Act 2016 and the wider threats to secure homes for a

London Renters Union

aims to unite London’s 3 million renters in a city-wide union that can tackle the housing crisis and win better housing for everyone. LRU was launched in 2018 by a coalition of housing groups and social justice groups including the Radical Housing Network, Take Back The City, Generation Rent, Digs (Hackney Renters) , and People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House (PEACH) 

National

Leasehold

Campaign

(NLC)

set up in 2017 by leaseholders affected by the escalating ground rents scandal, NLC campaigns for the abolition of residential leasehold in England and Wales, the adoption of commonhold for new flats and apartments, as well as full and proper redress for the millions of people currently trapped in leasehold properties.

Radical Housing

Network

a platform of different groups based in London fighting for housing justice across tenure and rooted in people’s everyday housing needs. Supports a diversity of tactics, including direct action, and organises as a horizontal association of groups that connect and cooperate with each other within and beyond our local neighbourhoods.

Real Voices

a grassroots networking platform for residents and campaigners setup since the Grenfell fire to enable residents to take action on landlord indifference to safety, health and wellbeing of tenants and leaseholders.

a campaign to defend social housing, with a focus on housing associations and cooperatives that coordinates with the Unite Housing Workers Branch to highlight and oppose the increasing commercialisation of social housing, and to improve the lives of workers and residents.

Tenants Union UK

founded in 2016, TUUK is a national democratic campaigning union with a network of powerful local branches aiming to defend the interests and quality of life of tenants and renters by building powerful relationships between renters and tenants and by providing education, advocacy, leadership development, advice and support services, and research to members.

a hub for sharing information, resources, training and data with groups and individuals who live in, or are concerned about tower block housing safety issues in the UK, and supporting residents to be heard.

set up in 1993, CCH is a UK-wide membership organisation open to all housing co-operatives, tenant-controlled housing organisations and regional federations of housing co-ops, that promotes and supports their work.

Generation

Rent

a relatively new campaigning organisation set up in 2014 by private renters fighting for professionally managed, secure, decent and affordable privately rented homes. Generation Rent calls for changes in legislation, strategies, policies and practices to make private housing a better place to live and seeks to strengthen the voice of private tenants by developing a national network of private renters and local private renters’ groups

Living Rent

Scotland’s tenants’ union, democratically run by and for tenants, organising to redress the power imbalance between landlords and tenants and ensure that everyone has decent and affordable housing.

National Federation of Tenant Management

Organisations

(NFTMO)

a national voluntary membership organisation founded in 1992 to facilitate networking and support for 130 TMOs in England and to promote community control as an option within regeneration initiatives and in areas of greatest need.

People

versus PFI

a campaign group set up in 2014 to educate people about the impact of the Private Finance Initiative on our public services, teach practical skills to challenge PFI locally, and campaign nationwide to end PFI now.

Radical Routes

a network of radical co-ops working whose members are committed to working for positive social change via the principle of mutual aid. The network is made up mainly of housing co-ops of various sizes (none with more than 17 members), a few workers co-ops and a couple of social centres. Radical Routes is able to make loans to member co-ops due to its ethical investment arm, Rootstock.

Shelter

founded in 1966 to campaign on slum housing, regulation of private landlords and funding for housing associations, today Shelter is a leading national housing organisation that campaigns for changes to the housing system and provides advice, legal representation, and research. Following the Grenfell Tower fire, Shelter launched a Commission on the Future of Social Housing which has since made important recommendations.

TAROE Trust

an independent registered charity formed in 2013 out of the former national tenant representative organisation, Tenants and Resident Organisations of England (TAROE), that assists people living in or looking to access affordable housing within the regulated housing sector by providing free advice and assistance on housing issues to persons who would otherwise be unable to obtain it.

one of the biggest tenant communities in the UK providing free content and resources to help tenants learn their rights and responsibilities, manage their tenancies and rental properties and maintain good relationships with their landlords and letting agen

grenfell and housing safety

campaigns to protect people from fuel poverty by challenging rip-off energy companies and unfair policies - including the failure to finance and support the replacement of dangerous cladding - that leave people to endure cold homes and taking action for warm, well-insulated homes and clean and affordable energy, under the control of people and communities, not private companies.

A website run by Gill Kernick, a former resident of Grenfell Tower and professional safety culture advisor with the aim of following the public inquiry and helping to highlight key lessons for preventing low probability, high consequence (Major or Catastrophic) events.

the Grenfell Tower Inquiry is an independent public inquiry, set up to examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017

a community-led organisation set up days after the Grenfell Tower fire focused on the long term goal of obtaining justice for the bereaved families, survivors, evacuated residents and the wider local community, partnering with representative organisations.

originally formed by local residents in 2010 to oppose overdevelopment on the Lancaster West Estate, home to Grenfell Tower, GAG went on to become the main witness - and sadly - unheeded voice warning about the various safety concerns that would eventually contribute to the tragic events of 14 June 2017 with the Grenfell Tower disaster. A remarkable website that is still being updated with post-fire information.

the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s ongoing project to explore the events surrounding the fire and the following treatment of survivors, their families and the community from a human rights and equality perspective such as the right to life, the right to adequate housing, access to justice, the rights of children and disabled people

an organisation set up by the survivors and the bereaved families of the Grenfell Tower fire determined to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again.

remarkable investigative journalism on Grenfell by Inside Housing magazine - Pete Apps, Luke Barratt and Sophie Barnes.

advice, information and support for renters

an online community of 2,000 people providing support and advice to tenants on individual cases.

launched in 1939, CAB is a network of independent charities offering free confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person across the UK. CAB help tenants and homeowners deal with the threat of eviction or repossession, poor housing conditions and accessing benefits.

provides free initial advice to residential leaseholders and park home owners, including on fire safety to those leaseholders living in high-rise buildings, and advisers can be booked to speak to groups of leaseholders.

a specialist housing law website, run by solicitors and barristers practising in the field, providing free information, updates and discussion on housing, leasehold and landlord and tenant law.

founded in 1986 as Brent Private Tenants Rights Group, A4R provides legal advice services for private renters in London as part of a wider goal of transforming the private renting sector through campaigning and influencing legislative change.

The leading campaigning charity supporting people out of homelessness through education, training and support with housing, employment and health, one to one support, advice and courses for homeless people in England, Scotland and Wales, help homeless people find and keep a rented home by working with landlords to ensure a supply of places to live, and giving homeless people the tools and knowledge they need to rent successfully.  carry out pioneering research into the causes and consequences of homelessness, and campaign for the changes needed to end it for everyone, for good.

the secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold and commonhold reform working to protect ordinary leaseholders who get caught up in the leasehold game from being exploited by freeholders. Offers individual advise as well as publishing authoritative editorials and campaigning for legislative and regulatory changes.

regulates registered providers of social housing to promote a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver homes that meet a range of needs.

interesting blogs

John Boughton’s blog that accompanies his remarkable book, Municipal Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Council Housing (Verso), celebrating the efforts and achievements of our early municipal reformers.

a progressive political blog linked to the Labour Housing Group with a particular focus on housing policy open to anyone interested in progressive debate about homes, housing and communities, and wider politics. We are but the views expressed here are those of individual authors and/or the editors and are not necessarily the view of LHG or London LHG.

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