Shelter has unveiled a campaign that rejects cost-of-living crisis ‘hacks’ and instead calls on the government to make housing more affordable.
One advertisement reads: “Cost-of-living hack #14 Just work more hours! OR the government could make housing more affordable.”
The homelessness charity has created satirical money saving hacks to contrast them with what it believes is the real solution – the government dealing with the price of housing.
The campaign was devised by the charity after a recent report revealed that almost one-in-seven (1.1 million) private renters in England had their rent increased in the last month.
Shelter claims that millions of private tenants are “being stretched to breaking point”, as one in three adults (2.6 million) are spending at least half their household income on rent. Some 2.5 million renters are also either “behind or constantly struggling” to pay their rent, a figure which has “rapidly increased” by 45% since April 2022.
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Launching today and planned by Yonder Media, the campaign will roll out via social media, online and outdoor platforms. Beer mats will also be created to spark conversation and a creative event will also reportedly take place outside the Conservative Party conference in October.
“Every day we’re being bombarded in the news by cost-of-living hacks. But whatever the latest hack is, it’s just a sticking plaster that can’t possibly cure runaway rents that are pushing people into homelessness,” Shelter director of communications, policy and campaigns, Osama Bhutta, said.
“Our campaign shows how these cost-of-living hacks are negligible in the face of the scale of the housing emergency. By making our audience look twice, we hope to raise awareness of the reality for struggling renters and show that it’s time the government takes action to make housing genuinely affordable.”
