Living Rent is a national

tenants' union The Tenants' Union ( et, Üürnikkude Liit) was a political party in Estonia. History The party first ran in national elections in 1923, Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p577 when it won a single seat in t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Originally established in 2014 as a campaign group urging the Scottish Government to implement

rent controls Rent regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aims to ensure the affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for dwellings. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves: *Price cont ...

, it subsequently became a mass membership organisation of tenants aiming to "tackle the power imbalance between landlords and tenants" through collective action. Living Rent is affiliated to

ACORN International ACORN International is a federation of member-based community organizations that is active in the UK, Canada, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, India, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, South Korea, Czech Republic and Italy. The membership currently ...

and is an associate member of the International Union of Tenants (IUT).

Structure

Living Rent is a democratic, members-led organisation. Members are organised in branches, typically at a neighbourhood level, each of which has a committee elected by local members. Branches work together on national campaigns through the national forum. A national committee elected by members at its AGM is legally responsible for the organisation and its good governance.

History

Living Rent was established in 2014 in response to the announcement of a series of Scottish Government consultations on housing. The organisation followed on from the Edinburgh Private Tenants Action Group (EPTAG). Living Rent's three key demands were for rent controls, the abolition of no-fault evictions and greater flexibility for tenants to end leases early. By 2015, Living Rent had established a national board, links to other organisations and trade unions, and local groups across Scotland. In October 2016, Living Rent held its first AGM as a tenants' union, reporting a membership of over 100 as well as 2,600 associate members and support from

Unite the Union Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Unite is the second largest trade union in the UK (after ...

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and the National Union of Students (NUS). By its second AGM in January 2018, its membership had doubled to over 200, allowing Living Rent to hire full-time staff to support its work in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and

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. The union's membership subsequently grew to over 500 by the 2019 AGM and over 1,200 by the 2020 AGM, with over 300 people joining during the height of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In August 2021,

Scottish Green Party The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 202 ...

co-leader

Patrick Harvie Patrick Harvie (born 18 March 1973) is a Scottish politician who has served as Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights since 2021. He has served as one of two co-leaders of the Scottish Greens since 2008, and is on ...

credited Living Rent with having "created the political space" for rent control proposals in the SNP-Green co-operation agreement, through which he became

Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights The Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights is a junior ministerial post in the Scottish Government. As a result, the minister does not attend the Scottish Cabinet but reports directly to the First Minister of Sc ...

later that month.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.livingrent.org/ Housing rights organizations