One of the more unexpected claims from Generation Rent activists is that when it comes to democracy, tenants are disadvantaged compared to landlords.
Dan Wilson Craw, deputy chief executive of Generation Rent, has issued a statement saying: “Private renters are at a disadvantage in the electoral system. Short tenancies and frequent moves mean it is easy for private renters to inadvertently drop off the electoral register between elections.”
He calculates that an apparent 70% of private renters have moved home since 2019; and that according to an exercise called the British Election Study, carried out in May 2023, 6.7% of private renters are not registered at all.
In the 2023 survey a further 8.1% were registered at a different address – equivalent to 548,000 voters.
His statement continues: “Generation Rent analysis of the most recent electoral registration data finds that some of the biggest drops in registration have been in areas with large private renter populations.
“Among 107 constituencies with private renter populations of 25% or more, the number of people on the electoral register has fallen since the 2019 General Election by an average of 5.4%.
“Among 426 seats with private renter populations smaller than 25%, the electoral roll has shrunk by an average of 1.6%.”
Craw continues: “With the housing crisis raging, the election is a huge opportunity for renters to use our democratic voice to call for better renting.
“But renters are at a disadvantage, compared with landlords, as frequent moves make it easier for us to fall off the register and miss out on voting.
“We have a few weeks left to decide who gets our vote, but we will miss this opportunity if we don’t have a ballot paper on 4 July.”
The activist group says that to come up with its figures it used passport, age and tenure data from the Census, and assumed that over-18s who either have no passport, or are UK passport holders or holders of passports from Ireland and 15 different Commonwealth countries, are all eligible to vote at the General Election.
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Dan sticks-in-your Craw off again. 😠 Whether you own or rent a house you have to notify various people of your change of address from the utilities to the DVLA. If the people he CLAIMS to represent have not got the intelligence to include the electoral register in the list, then they deserve not to vote.
By the way, earlier this year I had the usual blurb asking me to confirm who lived here for the local and PCC elections. 😉Does Dan believe those letters, addressed to the occupier, only go to house owners? 🤪
If tenants aren't bothering to register on the electoral register you have to wonder what they are trying to hide.
Are they working cash in hand and trying to hide from HMRC?
Do they owe money all over the place and not want to be found?
Are they committing benefit fraud elsewhere?
I am sure that is the case in many cases. Our most recent evictee is certainly hiding but also hadn't bothered to remove his wife from the register in the 4 years since she left.
The other ex-tenants we had poll cards for probably just haven't got round to letting the electoral register, the water company or Klarna know where they are now living.
At the end of the day, there is enough publicity about registering to vote that any one who doesn't do that has no-one to blame but themselves.
If they leave owing money (quite common) then they deliberately don't register to avoid debt collection.
The main reason for not being on the electoral roll is apathy!
The inner city areas with high levels of rented property are clearly missing out on the votes of these young Conservative tenants as Labour always get in. :)
If only someone else would take responsibility for more of these poor tenants lives so they didn't have to!! There will be plenty who register and vote. There will be loads who decide not to because they don't care, don't understand or don't like any party or the system. Then the ones who choose not to register for a specific reason, and those who can't be arsed.
I confess to having scanned the Labour manifesto the other day, to see what havoc they might be planning to release upon us. When I mentioned this to a couple of friends they looked amazed that anyone would take an interest in the election, and they had never heard of Angela Rayner!! These were typical working and self employed people. Makes you wonder.
I am not surprised at all, I deal with the general public 🥵 and they are often not pleased to see me or my colleagues. I always considered myself to be of average cerebral ability……. Nope I am not, I am close to Einstein ☢️ In comparison to some of the numpties I deal with.
Everyone has to be pro active to keep on top of personal administration. Lazy people who can't be bothered to register in a new address or get their mail redirected have only them selves to blame but as usual it's somehow LL's fault.
If I know an ex tenant's new address I will make sure they get their mail, other wise I mark it R T S and put it back in a post box, a lot of them are too lazy to help themselves
Andrew, you old softie!
The Royal Mail have a service called re-direct which the tenants can pay for. If they are too tight to pay the Royal Mail, I remind them I am a landlord, not a Royal Mail employee so all post is marked RTS.
I know, I am cruel, but actions have consequences.
Annoyed, I still get mail for my Nigerians. Stuff about elections, parking fines etc. Why should I be an unemployed postman doing "return to sender" all the time. They can't even be bothered to update the DVLA.
As ever our system is set up to protect those that offend. Thieves. When you don't have anything, these people just don't pay. They still get housed with our taxes due to having kids etc. Why do we bother going to work?
I am surprised they havent decided that Landlords should "ensure that their new Tenants register to vote" as part of our obligations and duties.
Let's be honest, Tenants register with SKY on day 1of moving in because people act on what they care about; so if they dont register to vote it's because they don't care or are trying to hide from HMRC or whomever.
Tenants all manage to register for benefits, get mobile phones, acquire cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, SKY TV, credit cards and loans etc when they want to. They are quite capable of doing all the necessaries to vote.
Perhaps tenants shouldn't be allowed to vote unless they can prove their worth to society.
Dan Wilson Craw to my knowledge has never said anything that is realistic, nothing whatsoever.
I will be more worried if I found myself agreeing with anything he says.
Labour is promoting themselves to this voting bloc in the hope that a fraction will vote!!! They can’t even be bothered to vote for this party that claim to address all these terrible tenant issues.
Looks like they don’t want people to know where they went. I’m still getting mail for them since last October, you can redirect for 6 months if you knew where to redirect it to. I had that then after 6 months they started coming again sometimes names I didn’t know, their mates using the Address.
I have the same things at the moment. Lots of mail for people who aren't and were never my tenants...
Yes had all that as well, also had some one register a ltd company at a long term empty property while I was renovating, had to be a scam but no one wanted to know
Call me cruel or whatever, but I bin all mail not collected within 4 weeks of the tenant leaving. End of.
Quoting figures from a 2023 survey when we are halfway through 2024 means nothing as does Dan stick in my craw.
As many have said in the comments, these little darlings can soon register for things that affect them such as internet and benefits, if they cannot be bothered to register for voting then who cares?
And these are the people that these dim wit politicians hope will vote for them. Dream on dim wits!
So landlords are now to blame for them being to bone idle to register 🤷♂️🤔🤷♂️ Ok I understand 😂
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