Generation Rent helps us choose the most renter-friendly Mayor of London

Image from: http://www.landlordzone.co.uk

The ability to tackle the lack of affordable housing in London is one of the main challenges the new mayor of London will be facing.

Generation Rent has just launched the website votehomes2016.com to identify the most renter friendly mayoral candidate, while providing citizens with detailed information on the extent of the London’s housing crisis.

All candidates are graded on a traffic-light system, according to the content of their policies and the extent these plans will help tenants in London. A red light is designed for specific schemes that do not improve the present circumstances, while a yellow dot stands for “on the right track”. The green light indicates projects that are “excellent” and therefore will enhance renters’ life.

So far, the two most pro-renter candidates are the Greens’ Sian Berry and the Labour’s Sadiq Khan, while voters are waiting for more reforms to encourage affordable rents from Tory Zac Goldsmith, Lib Dems Caroline Pidgeon, UKIP’s Peter Whittle and George Galloway of Respect.

Lowering housing costs should be City Hall’s top priority, according to the website, that reads: 

“The future of London is bleak if more than half of its young people can’t afford to do what their parents did and settle down to start a family.

“Even couples in the most affordable borough, Havering, will pay 35 per cent of their salary on rent. In Camden, where the rent is 70% of the median salary, forget it”.

With election day taking place on May 5, there is still time for more traffic lights to turn green on votehomes2016.com.

For further information please visit http://votehomes2016.com - The project is funded by Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.