News / acorn
Tenants protest council’s ‘whitewashing’ rent commission
Renters from across Bristol lined up outside City Hall on Wednesday night to deliver their “countless” housing stories to the doors of Bristol City Council.
Tenants formed a line outside the council building as they lined up to individually hand post cardboard signs through a makeshift letterbox outside the council’s doors.
The event, dubbed a REAL Renting Commission, was organised by the community renters union ACORN to highlight the city’s growing housing crisis, and to protest ACORN’s exclusion from the council’s Living Rent Commission.
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Tenants from a broad range of backgrounds shared their stories of renting in Bristol, from discriminatory landlords to shoddy housing and disrepair, as well as rising rents amidst a national cost of living crisis.
‘Make adapted homes!’ North Bristol resident and ACORN member Niamh is taking part in the Renters Commission to push for more accessible housing for people with disabilities
Speakers included a tenant who described her struggle as a disabled person finding rented accommodation in Bristol despite having a stable income through disability benefits and another tenant whose rent had been raised twice in 2022 alone.
One speaker highlighted the policy changes in Scotland, where the SNP recently introduced emergency legislation to protect tenants in private and socially rented homes, which involved capping rent until March of 2023.
There are currently almost 18,000 households on the waiting list for social housing in Bristol, with the list growing every day.
ACORN members stand outside Bristol City Council with their makeshift letterbox, ready to post their signs
ACORN members say they organised the REAL Renting Commission following widespread commission of Bristol City Council’s efforts to come up with solutions to the crisis facing renters in the city.
The Council and the mayor launched their Living Rent Commission to investigate renters’ experiences in the city last month, however ACORN claims the council excluded it from the commission, instead “offering a seat at the table to the region’s two major landlords’ federations”, ARLA and ALL Wessex, instead.
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ACORN has a history of tension with Bristol City Council. Last month members disrupted the first meeting of the council’s Living Rent Commission to highlight their exclusion, “filibustering” their meeting by reading out the reasons for why they should have been included.
ACORN is a key member of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, a national group of organisations pushing for the national Renters’ Reform Bill to contain better policy for renters.
All photos: Mia Vines Booth
Read next:
- ‘ACORN is a community union that has landlords on the run’
- Housing campaigners storm meeting in protest at their exclusion from commission
- The invisible gap: How the cost of living crisis is affecting Bristol
- Campaigners refused entry to ‘public’ toilets across Bristol as council scheme falters
- These parts of Bristol will be hit the hardest by skyrocketing energy bills in October
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