Tenants Movement: a hidden history

The first ever conference into the history of the tenants movement was held by Leeds Tenants Federation on 17 October 2009 and attended by tenants and housing academics from across the country.

The conference was organised by Leeds Tenants Federation and the AdEd Knowledge Company to spotlight research into housing struggles and the history of the tenants’ movement.

It featured presentations on : (papers underlined are on line in pdf format)

• Kim Singleton (Liverpool University) : 'Fair Rent is Bent': the Kirkby Rent Strike 1972-1973
• Paul Burnham: The Squatters of 1946
• Stewart Smyth (Manchester Met University Business School): Tenant campaigns and the struggle for accountable housing
• Tony Cox: Problems and Potential: Scottish Housing Campaigns 2004-2009
• John Grayson: Tenants, Unions and Councils in South Yorkshire from 1945
• Quintin Bradley: Leeds Rent Strikes 1914 & 1934: the formation of a tenants’ movement
• Sarah Glynn: Anti-racist tenant struggles in 1930s
• Paul Watt (Birkbeck College): 'Hands Off Our Homes': A Successful Anti-Stock Transfer Campaign in Buckinghamshire

With an introduction by Linda McNeil, Chair of Leeds Tenants Federation, and Key Note Speaker John Grayson talking on 'Looking at Tenant History: different histories, different politics'. The concluding presentation 'Tenants’ History for Today’s World: How can the past inform politics now?' was made by Stuart Hodkinson, of Leeds University