CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE: The growing numbers of renters and their voting swing to Labour means more legislation must come from the government if it wants to win them back.
Matt Singh, founder of Number Crunch Politics, said between the 2015 and 2017 elections there was a 10% increase in the number of private renters voting, and a 6% rise in social renters.
Almost all of these votes went to Labour.
“That was something that helped Labour quite substantially,” he said, with the swing enough to take out the Conservative majority.
He was speaking at a Conservative conference fringe event looking at trying to win back the rental vote.
“In 2010 most private renters voted Conservative, and now most vote Labour,” said Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter.
“If you become homeless the safety net isn’t there. The families being evicted from private tenancies, they are feeling extremely afraid and the state has abandoned them.”
Short-term wins
Prime minister Theresa May’s government has shown more acceptance of both private and social renting than David Cameron’s before it, as a concession both that housing for sale alone does not work and also to try and win back voters.
However, building more social and private rented homes is a long-term solution which will not arrive in time for the next General Election.
“A lot of the solutions about house building are going to take a long time,” said Neate.
“The rentquake that is going to hit the Conservatives at the next election is not going to be built out of.”
The government has started to implement shorter term rental reforms giving tenants more rights – such as banning letting fees and cracking down on private landlords – though this has proved slow. Moves to introduce three-year tenancies have still not been accepted.
“I don’t have all the answers but agree this a hugely important factor both politically and for the country,” said Ben Bradley, MP for Mansfield.
“Obviously private rental is growing and the shift to private rental from social means there are more issues… there is less support and less security.
“I think a well regulated private sector would be the best answer, but that’s not happening at the moment.”
Bradley said there needs to be means for encouraging better landlords, along with better legislation and powers of enforcement on rogue landlords.
Radical change needed
For the Conservatives, the matter could become more and more severe, as the number of renters grows, and their own dissatisfaction is harnessed by many of the policies of Labour.
Singh says polling on housing shows a 16-point lead for Labour generally, and a 27-point lead among renters.
Neate pointed out that renters have become a much larger group – and a much more significant group politically.
“Since 2001 renters have gone from one in 10 to one in four,” she said.
“We need to look at radical changes,” said Bradley. “Housing is not a subject where we can eke around the edges.”
“This is happening in government, but we are still not at the point where we are digging as deeply and being as radical as we could be.”
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