kojo_apeagyei
About
As a member of our Campaigns team, Kojo writes blogs designed to help the public to take action. 
The letting fees ban is finally happening
The letting fees ban is finally happening
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Mark 1 June 2019 in your calendars, folks.

Almost three years after the ban on letting fees was first announced, in Autumn 2016, the government has finally approved the Tenant Fees bill – which would ban letting agents and landlords charging ridiculous letting fees.

On Wednesday 23 January 2o19, parliament approved the bill, which bans all upfront fees to tenants – things like reference fees, credit checks, administration fees and contract renewal fees.

Government analysis suggests private renters could save … Read more

Does campaigning actually work? What we achieved in 2017
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Campaigning to bring safe, secure and affordable homes to all isn’t an easy mission. However, with your support last year we took some massive steps to getting there. Not only for the thousands we help on a day-to-day basis across the country through our advice and service provision, but also for the millions who stand to benefit from some of our campaigning achievements last year.

Here’s a shortlist of our campaigning highlights from 2017.

Building more homes

Throughout the year … Read more

How you made a difference; The 2017 Autumn Budget
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Did it live up to its hype as “the housing budget”? Shelter is certainly pleased to see a number of positive commitments put forth to address the housing crisis and ensure more people can have access to a safe, secure and affordable home.

Our primary ask going into the Autumn Budget was for the government to lift the freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) – a type of housing benefit people receive to cover their rent in the private rented … Read more

How Shelter's training session helped me influence my MP (Supporter blog)
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Over the past few months we’ve been campaigning hard for an end to the freeze on Local Housing Allowance in the run up to the autumn budget announcement on November 22nd. Over 20,000 Shelter campaigners have signed our petition, 7,000 have emailed their MPs and 514 have tweeted their MP.

We recently ran a training session in London with some supporters on ‘How to meet and influence MPs’.

One supporter, Terry, took his campaigning to the next level and raised … Read more

So, what's the latest on the Letting Fees ban?
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We have campaigned since 2013 to ban letting agent fees – launching our ‘Letting Away With It’ campaign, which quickly received 13,000 signatures of support from people all across the country. We even produced a video highlighting just how ridiculous the fees are within the context of buying a coffee – you wouldn’t pay for fees like ‘receipt printing’ and ‘water renewal’ at a café, so why should you pay for similar charges when renting?

With the announcement of the … Read more