Vicky Spratt is a housing journalist and documentary maker. Her 2016 campaign Make Renting Fair highlighted the plight of '

generation rent A generation refers to all of the people Childbirth, born and Personhood, living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average Era, period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during whic ...

' and succeeded in getting letting fees for tenants in England banned. She speaks at political conferences about the need for security in renting. Spratt has also done work on the mental health

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequence ...

s of hormonal contraception, with her ''Debrief'' investigation Mad About The Pill covered on BBC Radio 4 and

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. She has appeared as a commentator on BBC Woman’s Hour, Daily Politics, Radio 2, BBC 5 live, and NTS radio, and has spoken at political party conferences about the housing crisis. In 2021, she was included on the shortlist for ''

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'''s British Journalism Awards.

Life and career

Spratt attended Oxford University. She later wrote an article for

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about her experience as a student from a low-income background, and how she got into debt after graduating. Between 2013 and 2015 Spratt worked as a freelance journalist, writing opinion, features and news and reporting for publications including ''The Telegraph'', BBC Magazine, ''The Debrief'' and Broadly. Articles were mostly about politics and women's lifestyle. In January 2017, she began a role as Deputy editor at ''The Debrief''. Spratt's radio documentary ''Generation Right,'' which she wrote and co-presented, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 16 June 2014. The documentary investigates changing political views across generations. Spratt made a short documentary about

abortion rights in Ireland Human rights in Ireland are protected under the Irish Constitution and European provisions. Since 2014 the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has overseen human rights in the republic. Human rights issues in the country that have raised ...

for The Debrief, addressing the effect of Theresa May's coalition with the DUP. Spratt’s first book, ''Tenants,'' was published by

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in 2022. James Riding reviewed the book positively for ''

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'', describing it as "excoriating". The book was also chosen for ''The Guardian'''s "Book of the Day". Spratt began research for the book in 2017.

Activism

Housing rights campaigner

In 2016 Spratt ran a campaign, Make Renting Fair, in her role at The Debrief to highlight the plight of ‘Generation Rent’ which resulted in the Government announcing a ban on letting agency fees for tenants.

Mental health and hormonal contraception

She has also worked to highlight the mental health side effects of hormonal contraception, and her Debrief investigation Mad About The Pill was covered on Radio 4 and BBC news. She wrote and co-presented a documentary about the politics of young people for Radio 4, ''Generation Right'', and has written for VICE, Broadly, BBC, The Independent, The Evening Standard and The Spectator.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spratt, Vicky living people Women human rights activists Year of birth missing (living people) English feminist writers English journalists