Our statement on the Black Lives Matter protests in the US. Continue reading

Living Rent is looking for two community organisers to join our organisation in Glasgow and Edinburgh and fight for social and economic change. You will work closely with Living Rent’s members in Glasgow and Edinburgh, joining a growing team of Living Rent organisers in Scotland. Hours: FT (35h) or PT (22.5h) Pay: Living wage £9.30 per hour.  Continue reading

Maria and Martha, two Member Defence Representatives, report back from their work fighting for rent reductions and suspensions during the Covid-19 outbreak. Continue reading

City of Edinburgh council are putting their tenants’ lives at risk by failing to repair defective fire doors in the Oxcars Court Council high-rise in Muirhouse. The Fire Brigade have stated they are sending officers to investigate.   Continue reading

Today, three of the UK’s biggest tenants unions - ACORN, Living Rent and London Renters Union - released an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick. In the letter, backed by academics, civil society and union leaders, the groups make three demands on the UK government: to suspend all rent immediately; to cancel all rent debt; and to put in place stronger protections against eviction. Continue reading

Our open letter to Kevin Stewart regarding Covid-19 hygeine measures and our report on the lack of compliance among social landlords in Scotland. Continue reading

Since Scotland began lockdown on 23 March we have been repeatedly told we must do everything we can to ‘stop the spread’, so why have leading housing associations left our most vulnerable tenants without basic cleaning services and where does the buck stop? Continue reading

Dear Kevin Stewart, Please find attached an open letter to you as Housing Minister, and a dossier of evidence in support of what we are asking. The effects of the absence of regulation to ensure Covid-19 hygiene measures and information to secure physical distancing are mandated are illustrated in our report from tenants in RSLs across the country. As we are all acutely aware surfaces, particularly hard metal surfaces such as those seen in lifts in multistorey blocks, and buzzer/intercomm systems, handrails and bin chutes are a vector for the transmission of the virus. Equally there is no more dangerous a space than an enclosed space with lots of people densely packed together, such as a lift. Without information campaigns many tenants will not intuit the need for physical distancing measures. RSLs have a duty of care to their tenants and our evidence has shown a very mixed response with some landlords behaving dangerously negligently, while others have stepped up to the challenge to a degree, and we draw on their leadership as our suggestions for a common regulatory standard.  I'm sure like us you would agree with the need to maintain appropriate levels of communal hygiene across schemes and blocks and physical distancing is important and urgent. Our open letter to you was written in light of our findings and our dossier of evidence demonstrates the unsafe conditions in which many tenants are currently forced to live in. This is an urgent matter and I hope to hear back from you very soon. A common regulatory standard for hygiene in RSL housing blocs which protects staff, is fair to tenants and provides information to tenants on how to physically distance cannot wait, and we look forward to a constructive dialogue. Yours Sincerely,Sonja Coquelin, Chair of Living Rent, Scotland's Tenants' Unionhttps://www.livingrent.org/hygiene_letter   ^Link to Dossier.  

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On March 28th, 2020, tenants across Scotland came together, showing the government and landlords that during a global pandemic, they won't be silenced.  Continue reading