9th
Dec 2022
Generation Rent has revived the threat of ‘Rent-for-Sex as it is now claiming that 200,000 female renters could be offered ‘friendly’ rental rates for sexual favours.
The campaigning group along with Mumsnet held a recent survey which they claim finds four per cent of the 1,045 private tenants who took part in the survey, said they had been offered favourable discounts or free rent by a landlord or letting agent in return for sexual favours.
One renter said: “I was a young girl of 17 with a baby renting to get away from an abusive family at the time when I was approached by one of the two landlords who owned the property I was staying at. He intimidated me continuously, making me feel extremely ugly, horrible, that I was a cheap girl that needed him and his help. When I turned him down, he got so nasty.”
The two organisations say that as well as clear and obvious ‘Sex for Rent’ terms, respondents also stated that some landlords and lettings agents often displayed signs of a predatory nature during hard economic periods such as Covid.
Another renter said: “Both times the landlord has used my poverty (being a student then being a young person fleeing abuse) to ask for sex/make lewd comments, knowing I depend on a reference from him to move elsewhere.”
In 2017 the Ministry of Justice declared that ‘Sex for Rent’ was affirmed as a sexual offence, but since then there has only been one person convicted of the ‘Sex for Rent’ offense.
This year in February the government promised to hold a public consultation in the summer to investigate on whether to introduce a ‘Sex for Rent’ Bill, but as of yet the consultation failed to surface.
Baroness Alicia Kennedy, director of Generation Rent, says: “Too many private renters, especially the most vulnerable private renters, continue to be exploited and abused by predators who have no place in the private rented sector.
"That's why it’s so disappointing the promised public consultation did not take place this summer. Finally, now the Online Safety Bill is back in the Commons, the government must make sure it makes the legislative change to tackle this issue online. It would be devastating if these commitments are not honoured.
“As the cost-of-living crisis continues, low-income private renters are only being put into more desperate and vulnerable situations.”
“It is urgent that the Government acts to bring in a dedicated ‘Sex for Rent’ law, legislated so that platforms can no longer host this content. It should also support private renters by raising Local Housing Allowance to median rents, removing the benefit cap, and increasing local authorities’ funding so that they can distribute Discretionary Housing Payments to struggling private renters.”
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