Tories lost seats in areas with big private rented populations

Of the 32 seats the Tories lost to Labour and the Liberal Democrats yesterday 20 had higher than average private rental populations, typically with 19% of the population being renters.

Tories lost seats in areas with big private rented populations

Many of the Conservative seats lost in the General Election had a high population of private renters, campaign group Generation Rent found.

Of the 32 seats the Tories lost to Labour and the Liberal Democrats yesterday 20 had higher than average private rental populations, typically with 19% of the population being renters.

Areas with large numbers of renters that went to Labour included Portsmouth South, Reading East and Battersea.

Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, said: “As the Prime Minister prepares her legislative programme, she should bear in mind that 20 of the 32 seats she lost at this election have larger than average private renter populations. As home ownership remains unaffordable, the renter vote will only increase.

“She already recognises the injustice created by our broken housing market, but to neutralise this as an election issue she needs to take immediate action to ban letting agent fees, strengthen security of tenure and build new council homes.

“The good news is she would enjoy cross-party support for these reforms.”