The architect of lobby group Generation Rent on the housing crisis, the failings of the Homes for Britain campaign and why weak governments are wonderful

Alex Hilton agrees to meet on the evening of his final day as director of the lobby group Generation Rent. In the next week he will be moving to Singapore, but before he goes, there’s a lot to get off his chest.

A self-proclaimed “big picture guy”, Hilton’s 18 months at the head of the organisation representing renters’ rights have been impressive. In pushing housing up the political agenda, he and his team of eight have achieved more than many who have spent in decades in housing. And therein lies his frustration.



There aren’t enough people in housing who really know about power and how it works and what makes change

“These are intelligent people who have all the answers and are too scared to say what they are,” he says. “Somehow an industry full of people utterly dedicated to something noble has become a very cautious and conservative industry. Generation Rent shouldn’t exist – these people should be doing that job, they should have solved these problems by now. They have the talent and the brains and the money to get it done and yet almost every housing association in the country has abrogated its role in changing the housing sector.”



So what’s been going wrong? “There aren’t enough people in housing who really know about power and how it works and what makes change,” he says. “If you look at the National Housing Federation, I see so many wonderful people. Yet somehow these trade bodies manage to be so much woefully less than the sum of their parts. It’s all to do with not wanting to upset anyone.”



For Generation Rent this has led to a clashing of interests where, Hilton believes, there should have been a natural synergy. His strategy has been to push for a political crisis about rent control. Although it would be unlikely to lead to the rent controls, politicians would seek to quell the storm with an alternative – such as an additional £10bn in the social housing budget.



“The people who singularly would benefit from that extra £10bn – the housing sector – don’t campaign for it. Their analysis is so wrong that they don’t realise that if you created a political crisis over rent control you would get an increase in the budget and that would be a good proxy.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators at the Homes for Britain rally. The campaign, which Generation Rent withdrew from, demanded an end the housing crisis within a generation. “Most 20-year-olds want it sorted out before they’re 50,” says Hilton. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

This deadlock between the two ideologies led to Hilton’s controversial withdrawal of his organisation from the cross-sector Homes for Britain campaign in March. The decision, triggered by the Tory announcement of its plans for a right to buy for housing association tenants, angered NHF chief executive David Orr. It can’t have come as a surprise, however, as Hilton had been negotiating over the campaign’s public strategy for almost a year. In particular, he felt allowing parties to produce a housing strategy after the election was fundamentally wrong.



“During an election is the best time to put pressure on politicians because it’s the only time they actually give a shit what their voters think. Even the ones who aren’t in marginals listen to their voters during an election.



“Homes for Britain gave them a get-out-of-jail-free card. They said: ‘Tell us in a year what you’re going to do and we don’t mind if it takes you 30 years to do it’,” he says. “Well I’m going to be 40 in January and I want it sorted out before I’m 70. Most 20-year-olds want it sorted out before they’re 50. This can’t wait 30 years.”



Weak governments are wonderful because you get all sorts of shit out of a weak government

The issues extend beyond political campaigning. Hilton blames housing associations for allowing regeneration disputes to flourish.



“It’s well-intentioned incompetence that leads to the regeneration battles,” he says. “Social housing doesn’t get its tenants. If they just talked to people they would probably find that those people would help them get even more homes on that site, and they would describe [for them] what their other ambitions are, and how that place could become a thriving community for generations to come.”



This incompetence reflects inwards also, Hilton suggests. He warns that the best individuals working in housing are considered “peripheral and interesting, at best”, while major organisations such as Shelter have had their priorities influenced by “middle-aged direct debit signatories”.



Despite having a productive relationship with the charity, Hilton says he found working with Shelter – perhaps the best-known housing organisation in Britain – frustrating. “If I were to analyse Shelter I would say it’s almost like a division by pay scale as to who thinks that [Generation Rent] has got the right policy positions: invariably it’s the people who can’t afford to be owner-occupiers who think that we’re right.”



Renters ‘will outnumber homeowners in 104 parliamentary seats by 2021’ Read more

Though he departs the country, Hilton is not leaving housing behind. He is planning to write a book on the subject, and working with New Era estate campaigner Lindsey Garrett to support her candidacy for London mayor. And his positivity about the possibility of making a difference on housing remains, describing the new Conservative government as “fertile” for change.



“Weak governments are wonderful because you get all sorts of shit out of a weak government. They stop worrying about ideology when they’re worrying about keeping their majority,” he says. “There are 21 constituencies where Tory MPs look set to lose their seats if they decide to be anti-renter. That’s far more MPs than you need to create a winning rebellion in the Tory government.”



“Change will happen with or without the government’s consent. If they don’t consent, a political crisis will emerge because this can’t go on.”