Renters unite

House prices and rent rises in London are soaring above incomes, making the capital more and more unaffordable for a huge range of people who are vital to keeping the city functioning: police officers, teachers and NHS staff or young professionals in the private sector. The leaders of blue-chip companies know as well as anyone that their businesses can’t function in a metropolis that’s too pricey for the workforce to live in.

As someone who rents privately and has seen my living costs shoot up in the nearly 20 years I’ve been in London, I’m also convinced that reform of the private rental sector is crucial.

All of London’s estimated 950,000 privately rented homes – housing 2.3 million people – will be eligible to join my proposed London Renters Union.

Funded initially by City Hall but independent and run by renters themselves, it will organise to rein in private rents, expose rogue lettings agents and create a central register of landlords, including potentially a blacklist. Importantly, it will give private renters a much stronger voice to campaign for better policies within the city and nationally.

It’s inspired by the example of the Glasgow rent strike, when a carpet-weaver called Mary Barbour led 30,000 households refusing to pay their rent at the height of World War I. It will also build on the work already being done by existing renters’ groups in London. A great example comes from the New Era Estate in Hackney, where tenants kicked up such a fuss when a US investor bought their homes and threatened to evict them that the new owner sold them on to a charity, which then introduced rents based on ability to pay.

I’ve had a great response so far to the idea, which goes much further than the tinkering with a broken market proposed by the two main parties.

Sian Berry, Green Party candidate for mayor of London, and the party’s lead candidate for the London Assembly