After many of us gathered last night to hear about the changes to private renting, Ires REIT, the largest landlord in the state, declared to investors today that they anticipate that they will be able to increase rents by over 25% under the new rules. This clearly confirms what was said last night – this is a political decision being made to favour large landlords and institutional investors so that they can enrich themselves by reaching into the pockets of their tenants. You can rewatch the webinar here and see the slides here

But as the inspiring presentations from Sindicat de Llogateres de Catalunya (The Tenants’ Union of Catalonia) and Living Rent (Scottish tenants’ union) showed, there are ways that tenants can come together and make change. From direct action, to political campaigning, we are stronger when we are organised.

You can take that first step towards defending your rights and fighting for a fairer housing system by joining CATU if you are not already a member. You can do that right here: https://catuireland.org/join/. And whether you are a long-term member or have just joined, make sure to get active: in your branch, in campaigns, and in any way you think your skills are useful to the movement. If you are renting from a large landlord, now is the time to start to talk to your neighbours about what rent changes are coming down the tracks and why we need to be organised to resist them.

If you left an indication you were interested in joining the union on the registration form, your local branch and/or organiser will be in touch individually too.

As a reminder, yesterday was the first public educational event in a series on large landlords and organising against them. You can register for the follow-up event on Tuesday March 10th on the LRC group and their practices at the same link you registered for last night. See here.