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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