Why renters are protesting against the housing crisis: ‘People are neglected for profit’

Joanne Winter is tired of being evicted – so she’ll be joining thousands of renters heading to London to vent her anger at the housing crisis in a major protest.

Winter, 28, will attend the National Housing Demonstration at Soho Square Gardens on 18 April. Protestors will demand rent controls and more council housing.

She told Big Issue her experience of renting in London has been defined by instability, stress and constant uncertainty.

Three years ago, while living in a shared warehouse in North London, “the whole flat received an eviction notice” amid “really bad disrepair”.

She described how it as “a really, really stressful situation”.

It was, she said, a turning point. “That was the first time I realised that if your housing is disrupted and stressful, it kind of radiates out into every other part of your life… if you don’t have a stable base everything else becomes very difficult.”

It’s a frustration many renters can relate to. 

Private rents have reached record highs in recent years, rising 8% in the last two years alone. That’s almost £1,200 more expensive over the course of a year, on average, at a time when other bills have been rising too.

The 18 April demonstration will see more than 50 grassroots groups as well as trade and tenant unions such as Acorn, Generation Rent and Greater Manchester Tenants Union in attendance. The protest also has the backing of left-wing MPs including Jeremy Corbyn, Green Party’s Carla Denyer and Labour’s Richard Burgon.

Winter will be there, too. 

It was support from London Renters Union that helped her and her housemates to resist eviction for most of a year. 

“It was a long and really tiring process,” she said, but also transformative. “It was like the first time that I felt seen. There were other people who kind of understood the stresses of having to constantly think: ‘Can I afford rent this month? Can I afford everything else at the same time?’”

After she was finally evicted, the instability continued. “That same year I had to move three different times,” she said, after being “evicted multiple times or landlords decided to sell right after I’d moved in”.

Forced her out of Haringey home after five years, Winter moved to Deptford where she has been for a year and a half. “It’s relatively stable in comparison to the previous things, which has been a big relief,” she said, though she frames that stability as hard won.

Winter is attending the National Housing demonstration this weekend because she believes “the response that we’ve seen from the government is wholly inadequate”. 

‘We need to unify’

Mum-of-three Joanica Carlos Pereira Oquiniame, 35, will also be heading to the National Housing Demonstration after recently being evicted.

She was served with an eviction notice in May 2024 before receiving a second one just five days into 2026.

“It was extremely difficult because I’m on benefits and there are four of us,” said Oquiniame, a member of London Renters Union from Hackney. “So it was very, very challenging to find a place to rent.

“Because of my daughter’s school, I wanted to find somewhere in Hackney, because since I moved into the UK, the only thing I know is the borough I lived and I know, is Hackney. 

“My daughter actually was born there and grew up there so it was a bit difficult to leave the borough.”

The Renters’ Rights Act promises to ban letting agents and landlords from discriminating against prospective tenants who receive benefits or have children.

It’s something Oquiniame encountered in her search for a new home.

“I felt discriminated against because of benefits,” she said. “Every time I called to ask about the property, everything would go smoothly but then when I mention if they accept DSS, everything changes.”

Oquiniame has since found a new place to live but she is protesting for wider change.

“I managed to move to a bigger place but there are a lot of people who need help, I want to contribute any way I can. Even if it’s to protest and fight for our rights and for our children’s future,” she said.

“I think we need to unify. Because the thing that I realise with people: we don’t understand that we have the power for change.”

‘People are neglected in favour of profit’

“It’s been a really long time – I’ve had the pleasure of seeing how high rents can go,” said 33 year-old Anita Waithira Israel, who has been renting for 15 years.

“I’ve also been caught in short-term rolling contracts,” Israel added. “They’re sold as being flexible and easy for the tenant, but in reality, it’s just a way for the landlords to be able to evict you at a minute’s notice.”

After signing a short-term let for a “really lovely place” in Brixton, she thought she’d finally found a long-term home. But three months later, the landlord decided to sell the house.

It took her another six months to find a place that would accept her with her cat Luna.

Israel has struggled to find affordable, pet-friendly housing and has been hit by the instability of renting. The Renters’ Rights Act is designed to address both issues, although Israel is skeptical.

“In theory, it sounds great, but in practice, it’s actually not translating. I have literally experienced this first-hand, having conversations with landlords, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, ok, we’re happy with a cat? But it will be at my discretion.’ And they make it sound like they’re doing you a favour by charging you an extra hundred pounds.”

She is heading to the protest to voice her dissatisfaction at the wider housing market.

“Gentrification is essentially social cleansing,” she added. “People are neglected in favour of profit. Seeing things like the Grenfell Tower fire happen, and constituencies failed in such an insidious way – even though houses aren’t necessarily catching fire, it’s the same system that’s pushing people out of their homes.” 

‘We’ve got to come together and make that change work’

Conor McGeown will be heading down to the protest from Clayton in Manchester after living in four different tenancies over the last six years as well as time spent living with his parents.

“I’m a bit more secure but only really because I’m living with two close friends in slightly overcrowded conditions. It’s a two-and-a-half bed and there’s three of us but it means that rent is cheaper,” the 30 year old told Big Issue.

Last summer, McGeown was told he would face a rent increase of £105 which he managed to negotiate down to £80. Unfortunately, the letting agent didn’t pass this on the landlord and he and his friends ended up accruing £100 in rent arrears on their £1,070 a month rent.

“In March we were told the landlord was threatening us with eviction,” said McGeown.

“I think it was the sense that I’ve literally just tried to renegotiate a rent increase and you’ve just used that possibility of a section 21 to completely blow us out of the water with any change for us to come back on it.”

Read more:

• Rise of the good landlords: Inside the movement to make the private rental sector tackle homelessness
• Finding a rented home ‘easier than it has been for six years’ despite landlord exodus fears
• Why are homes left empty in the UK and how can we fill them up?

Section 21 evictions will be banned in England on 1 May but McGeown told Big Issue it was still vital that renters unite to protest.

“This act does change things but we’ve got to come together and make that change work,” he said.

“Because the government, even though we demand it, isn’t working for us to manage this relationship between us and landlords. It’s us that still have to fight it. So we have to come down to a demo and teach each other. 

“It always feels like it’s put down on renters to actually work to make our lives a bit easier.”

One of the main demands of the National Housing Demonstration is the introduction of rent controls to limit record-high rents.

McGeown said he believes the impact of high rents is overlooked and the protest can help “put it on the agenda”.

“It feels like when governments, both local and national, are looking to make the economy work, they should be looking at rents as such a key part of that,” he said.

“Rents and evictions, that’s people’s lives and how productive they are going to be in the local economy.

“If you’re moving constantly, if you’re getting evicted, it’s going to disrupt your work. If your rent is high, you’re not paying things into other parts of the economy.”

Why are renters protesting at the National Housing Demonstration?

Rents have been rising above both inflation and wages, and have reached record highs in recent times.

Analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), published earlier this week, found rents have increased 8% on average over the past two years.

But rents have been a high proportion of renters’ incomes in England for the last 20 years, JRF found, and the increases seen in recent years were already on top of high rents. That meant relatively small rent rises were enough to push low-income renters into poverty.

Rent inflation has been slowing in recent months and Rightmove reported this week that rents have stopped rising for the first time in a decade.

However, the war in the Middle East has sparked fears that tenants could face rent hikes if landlords face growing mortgage costs. Data from the Moneyfacts suggested 1,300 buy-to-let mortgage details had been pulled from the market at end of March while rates increased.

However, a survey of over 2,000 private landlords in England carried out by the TDS Charitable Foundation, suggests that most tenants might not see any change.

In total, 49% of landlords last year said they funded their rental property without any borrowing at all in 2025, up from 31% in 2024. It means higher mortgage rates do not affect around half of all landlords.

Just over a quarter of landlords said they funded their rental property with interest-only buy-to-let mortgages that are vulnerable to hikes.

Meanwhile, 26% of landlords said they had increased rents because of growing mortgage costs.

Are rent controls likely to be introduced?

The Scottish government has committed to introducing a form of rent controls in the future but it looks highly unlikely that England will follow suit.

The Westminster government continually rejected calls to intervene in the private rental sector to cap rents while the Renters’ Right Act was passing through parliament. The legislation has been criticised for failing to address affordability in the rented sector.

Critics argue rent controls would reduce investment in private rented homes and see declining standards.

Polling by More in Common commissioned by JRF shows that the public think the government should intervene on the cost of renting. A total of 79% of the public agree that the government should be playing a role in ensuring private rents charged by landlords are affordable. 

Green leader Zack Polanski recently called for the introduction of rent controls in England. 

Polanski said: “The affordability crisis is something affecting nearly everyone, from the most vulnerable to people in work and comfortable, where any change in circumstance can push people over the edge into requiring a food bank. This crisis is totally avoidable.”

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

Change a vendor’s life.

Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week – and always take the magazine. It’s how vendors earn with dignity and move forward.

You can also support online:
Subscribe to the magazine or support our work with a monthly gift. Your support helps vendors earn, learn and thrive while strengthening our frontline services.

Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.