Tenants’ union Acorn is lobbying Norwich City Council to introduce a selective licensing scheme and to better enforce its housing policies.

Its new campaign illustrates how the group is focused on becoming a force in local politics by positioning itself as “a continuous voice for better conditions for all tenants in Norwich”.

The group has launched the initiative on social media, explaining that the city’s landlord licensing campaign will call for the authority to enforce good housing standards and ban dodgy landlords.

An Acorn spokesman tells LandlordZONE that it has already campaigned for similar measures in other towns and cities as part of a wider effort to improve housing standards and will continue to do so elsewhere.

We can’t rely on landlords to self-regulate or wait for politicians

“We can’t rely on landlords to self-regulate or wait for politicians to act in our favour - that’s why it’s essential for tenants to organise and demand change directly,” he says. “By building collective power, tenants can push for fairer housing policies such as landlord licensing and hold both landlords and local authorities to account.”

Acorn’s online renters’ survey aims to get feedback from private renters across Norwich to present to the council, to show how badly the city needs to find a way of dealing with bad landlords. It wants to know about problems including mould and damp, disrespectful behaviour from landlords, unlawful evictions, deposit theft and discrimination.

Norwich currently only has a mandatory HMO licensing scheme although last year the council announced it was considering proposals for an additional scheme.

Following the second reading of the Renters’ Rights Bill, Acorn is pushing Labour to introduce tougher rent caps or face undermining work to reform renters’ rights and has urged Labour to curb ‘upfront payments’ for new tenants to one month’s rent in a bid to make rented homes more affordable.

Image credit: Acorn Norwich/Instagram