Last night, Generation Rent was handed the Housing and Homelessness Award at the 2017 Sheila McKechnie Foundation awards in London.

The award was in recognition of our work in the past year to mobilise renters as a political force, which culminated in the government’s announcement of a ban on letting fees in November.

We are pleased to welcome four new trustees who have joined the Generation Rent board since the start of the year.

Daniel Bentley, Sean Cosgrove, Betsy Dillner and Hannah Williams bring with them decades of experience in political communications, financial management, movement building and business development.

Generation Rent would be nothing without the people who donate their money or time to the cause. We have a team of two full-time staff going into 2017, and we are ever more reliant on the generosity of our supporters.

The organisation is governed by a board of unpaid trustees, who support the team and enable us to devote as much of our energy to campaigning for renters' rights and building the wider movement.

With the need to develop the diversity of our funding, and new opportunities to make the most of, we are recruiting several new trustees who will help us do this.

Since its launch, Generation Rent has achieved a series of improvements to the lives of renters, including:

• Outlawing of revenge evictions
• Making landlords pay their fair share of tax
• Stronger regulation of landlords and letting agents
• A proposed ban on letting fees 

The growing renter population finally has a voice, but it needs to be much stronger.

Generation Rent was due to present a workshop at the first People's Housing Conference next Saturday. Unfortunately this has been postponed.

There are a couple of events coming up - World Homeless Action Day and MIPIM - that activists can get involved with. More details and a full statement are available on the People's Housing Conference website.

Generation Rent has raised enough money to keep campaigning for private renters across the UK, amassing nearly £18,000 in donations.

A month ago our future looked very bleak, with no guarantee that we would be able to survive past September. The team here has thrown everything we had at fundraising and we have been humbled by the response. 

Since we launched our emergency crowdfunding campaign at the end of July, 371 people have donated a total of £17,982. With our grant from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust of £45,500, these funds allow us to continue our work in London and nationally with a team of two: director Betsy Dillner and communications manager Dan Wilson Craw.  

We're at the halfway stage of our campaign and although we have reached our minimum thanks to the generosity of our supporters we still have a long way to go to reach our £60,000 target. 

However, we can announce today that Generation Rent has been awarded a grant from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd. The grant of £45,500 will support our campaign for rent controls ahead of the GLA elections in 2016.   

The Trust exists to correct imbalances of power and strengthen the hand of organisations striving for reform. As the grant is intended for this particular campaign, it does not count towards our wider crowdfunding effort. It is nevertheless a huge boost to our organisation.

Every pound we receive takes us a step closer to a private rented sector that works for everyone. Please donate today.

Generation Rent needs your help. We unexpectedly have only two months of funding left. There is a real danger that the campaign will simply vanish, and with it the national voice of private renters in the media and political debate.

We are working hard to secure new sources of long term funding, but this will take months and we need your help now. We need to raise £60,000 by 31 August. These funds would allow us to continue our work empowering renters to put pressure on Parliament, the London mayoral candidates and local councils while applying for grants and building a sustainable organisation.

Please donate just £20 – or what you can afford – on our crowdfunding site, People’s Republic, who are kindly waiving their fees because they like us so much.

Generation Rent announces today that director Alex Hilton is stepping down from his role. He will be leaving the organisation on Friday 15^th May. Betsy Dillner, currently Community Campaigns Manager at Generation Rent, has been appointed Director in Alex’s place.

Today, we're very sad to say that we have to withdraw our support for the Homes for Britain campaign. The title's great but in reality we believe the strategy is so flawed that it has to date undermined the interests of people suffering the consequences of the housing crisis.

We're not suggesting anyone else leaves the coalition, but we are asking signatories to work with us on a more effective, loose campaigning network, and to influence Homes for Britain so that it advocates solutions to the housing crisis that are significantly more timely than within a generation.

Our letter to Homes for Britain supporters is below, but of course we have no such list. We'd be grateful if you could share this letter by email and social media. Anyone organisation that wants to participate in delivering material change, whether that be by asking a network for support or by offering it, or even simply keeping abreast, should email us at [email protected]

Thanks so much,

Alex Hilton
Director, Generation Rent