GAMECHANGER – Empowering Renters and Landlords

Episode Title: Simplifying Housing Issues with Jennifer Harris from Tenancy Deposit Scheme

Release Date: 9 Dec 24

Host(s):

• Adam Carter
• Louise Baxter MBE (LouBax)

Guest(s):

• Jennifer Harris – Head of Policy Research and Strategy at the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS)

Episode Summary:

In this episode of the Consumer Friend Podcast, Adam and Louise sit down with Jennifer Harris, Head of Policy Research and Strategy at the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), to discuss their innovative new tool: the My Housing Issue Gateway.

Navigating tenancy disputes and housing rights can be overwhelming for renters and landlords alike. The Housing Gateway is here to change that. Jennifer explains how this free, user-friendly tool provides tailored action plans, letter templates, and phone scripts to empower tenants and landlords to resolve issues effectively.

From damp complaints to deposit disputes, this episode covers how the Gateway is transforming the rental landscape by making housing rights accessible to everyone. Whether you're a tenant facing a difficult landlord or a landlord looking to meet your responsibilities, this episode offers practical advice and insights you can use.

Key Takeaways:

• The Housing Gateway: A free tool to help renters and landlords navigate tenancy issues with personalised action plans.
• Raising Awareness: Over 50% of tenants in England don’t know where to turn for help with housing problems. The Gateway aims to change that.
• Tailored Solutions: Users get customised advice, ready-to-use templates, and scripts to make resolving disputes less stressful.
• Empowering Tenants and Landlords: The Gateway helps bridge the communication gap, improving outcomes and raising standards across the rental market.

Resources & Links:

Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) Website – For information on deposit protection and housing resources.

TDS Charitable Foundation – Access the My Housing Issue Gateway here.

Consumer Friend Website – For additional tenancy advice and resources.

Timestamps:

• [00:00] – Introduction: Adam and Louise introduce the topic and guest, Jennifer Harris.
• [03:15] – Jennifer explains the inspiration behind the My Housing Issue Gateway.
• [08:30] – The problem: Why tenants and landlords often struggle with tenancy issues.
• [15:00] – How the Gateway works: Personalized action plans and templates.
• [23:00] – The importance of empowering tenants and raising standards in the rental market.
• [32:00] – Where to access the Gateway and how it’s being rolled out.
• [40:00] – Final thoughts and advice for tenants and landlords.

Please like, subscribe and rate to help increase the reach in the UK. You can also follow us on socials:

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• Website: Consumer Friend
• Twitter: @ConsumerFriendUK
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Transcript

[00:00:00] This is Consumer Friend.

[00:00:10] Adam: Hello and welcome to the Consumer Friend podcast, your go to place for tips, advice and discussions on how to protect your consumer rights with me, Adam Carter, and my mate Lou Bax, Louise Baxter. Hi, how are you? 

[00:00:21] LouBax: I'm good Ads, how are you? It's very, very rainy though for a Monday. It's not a great start to the week with the weather.

[00:00:27] Adam: Very rainy, yeah. Winter's happened, hasn't it? It's definitely happening. 

[00:00:31] LouBax: It really is. I quite like autumn though. It makes me want to like tidy stuff and, uh, eat roast dinner. I 

[00:00:37] Adam: quite like that. Put on a bit of weight. Put on a bit of winter weight. An excuse to eat. Love it. Carbs. 

[00:00:43] LouBax: Lots of carbs. 

[00:00:46] Adam: Today we have a fantastic episode lined up for all you tenants out there.

[00:00:51] Adam: As of 2021, over 4. 4 million households in the UK were living in a private rented sector. That's around 19 percent of the population. With such a [00:01:00] large number of people renting, understanding tenancy deposits and how to protect them is really, really crucial. In the UK, 43 percent of disputes regarding tenancy deposits are about cleaning and another 30 percent are related to property.

[00:01:11] Adam: property damage. These disputes often arise at the end of tenancy, making it essential to know your rights. So with me today, we are thrilled to be joined by Jennifer Harris, head of policy research and strategy at the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. One of the largest providers of deposit protection in the UK.

[00:01:27] Adam: TDS work hard to ensure tenants and landlords are treated fairly when it comes to protecting and returning deposits. Hello, Jennifer, how are you? Thank you for coming on. 

[00:01:37] Jennifer Harris: Um, hello. Hi, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. 

[00:01:42] Adam: And thank you so much for coming on. So I guess, shall we just start off with who are, or what are the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, the TDS?

[00:01:52] Jennifer Harris: So TDS is the leading tenancy deposit and dispute resolution provider in the UK. So this organization was initially [00:02:00] established from concerns about the unfairness of the tenancy deposit system. So deposits being unfairly withheld, for example, and tenants not knowing what to do about it. Um, so the roots of the organization really lie in trying to make the sector fairer and more professional.

[00:02:15] Jennifer Harris: And we know that renting out property can also be quite challenging for landlords as well. So we try to make life easier for tenants, landlords, and letting agents in relation to deposit protection, but also in relation to in relation to the different disputes and problems that might arise throughout the tenancy.

[00:02:29] Adam: So basically, if I wanted to go and rent, I would put my deposit in with a scheme like yours, and you are currently the largest scheme, TDS. 

[00:02:39] Jennifer Harris: So if you're renting out a property and you decide to take a deposit, you are required by law to protect it in one of three deposit protection schemes. So we're the largest in terms of value of deposits protected.

[00:02:53] Jennifer Harris: So we. Protect over 2 billion pounds worth of tenants money across the UK. 

[00:02:57] Adam: And is that, is that free to the consumer? [00:03:00] 

[00:03:00] Jennifer Harris: It's, it's, it's, it's free for tenants. Yeah. And it's, um, it's free for landlords, depending on which scheme that you say, this is kind of more detailed than I was wanting to get into. To be honest, the gateway is not 

[00:03:11] LouBax: about deposits.

[00:03:12] LouBax: No, the gateway, we're not talking about deposits. Right. So today as well. So Jen, whilst obviously TDS holds deposits for consumers and tenants. in relation to that landlord and tenant relationship. Um, the part of the organization you work for is the charity. And the reason we brought you on today is because you are launching something in um, November, December time, which is a gateway.

[00:03:32] LouBax: Do you just want to talk to us a little bit about that? Because this is really exciting and be really useful for like millions of consumers, millions of tenants and landlords. 

[00:03:40] Jennifer Harris: Sure. So one of the things the wider TDS group does is it runs, uh, two charities. So we have one in England and Wales and one in Scotland.

[00:03:48] Jennifer Harris: And it really focuses on trying to raise standards in the sector and help people understand what their rights and responsibilities are, um, and make sure that there's appropriate services available [00:04:00] to help them resolve any differences or problems that might arise. Um, shall I go into some of the background of why we need the gateway or do you want me to just launch into the gateway itself?

[00:04:08] LouBax: Yes. The background will be really interesting, again, because obviously it's quite topical at the moment because all of the news and information that's coming out around the new Renters Rights Act, isn't it? The rights bill that's coming out for the Labour government has recently announced, which was a Conservative bill.

[00:04:25] LouBax: initiative, but now it's slightly been tweaked, hasn't it? So there's been a lot of information and stuff on the news around actually these additional protection that tenants are going to get, but also there's been quite a lot of pushback from landlords about what protection are they going to get as well.

[00:04:39] LouBax: So I think the background would be really interesting. 

[00:04:42] Jennifer Harris: Yep. So, um, as you mentioned, the renter's rights bill is going through parliament at the moment and it seeks to sort of Improve the quality, the quality, um, of the private rental sector, the experience of living within, um, within the sector. So, We know that tenants often face [00:05:00] problems, for example, with the quality or condition of the property.

[00:05:03] Jennifer Harris: Dampen mould is quite prevalent. We know from our research often tenants will report these issues to their landlords and often landlords will respond. But when That issue isn't being addressed. So say they report the issue and the landlord or letting agent just isn't replying or not addressing the issue properly.

[00:05:20] Jennifer Harris: Tenants often won't take it any further. And that's partly because of the insecurity which exists within the sector, which is associated with Section 21, the ability Um, of landlords to evict tenants without having to give a specific reason. So we know that leads to feelings of insecurity. And as a result, tenants might be reluctant to complain about their landlords and take that issue further.

[00:05:41] Jennifer Harris: So the government's planning to remove that. They've committed to removing that, but we know that. Also, one of the reasons why tenants won't take that issue any further, complain to their council, for example, is because they don't know about the options that exist. So we did, um, we do a regular national survey with tenants [00:06:00] and we ask them, you know, if you had a problem, um, with the quality or condition of your property that your landlord wasn't addressing, would you know where to go next?

[00:06:08] Jennifer Harris: 50 percent said no. So 50 percent of tenants, 50 percent of the 4. 5 million tenants that live across. England don't know where to go next if they have a problem with a property that isn't being addressed. And this is partly because it's actually the landscape's really confusing, right? So, and housing rights are much more difficult to assert than other consumer rights, I would say, partly because that landscape is so complex.

[00:06:34] Jennifer Harris: So depending on what your problem is, is it deposits? Is it disrepair? Is it, you know, um, illegal eviction? Is it, you know, Rent increase. There's lots of different places where you might go with that problem. So it might be councils. It might be an ombudsman. It might be one of a few different ombudsmen. It might be the courts.

[00:06:52] Jennifer Harris: It might be the tribunal. It might be one of the adjudication schemes offered by deposit protection schemes. [00:07:00] That's just really confusing for consumers. We don't make it easy. 

[00:07:02] LouBax: No. We don't make it easy for people. We, I mean, we have this from, like, so when we, a lot of the stuff that we talk about on the podcast are, so consumer issues, consumer education is at, is at an all time low.

[00:07:12] LouBax: People don't know where their rights are in relation to just buying goods, let alone, like you say, rental. Right. Or your tenancy rights or where to go to access that information. Like when we talk about fraud and scams on the podcast as well, we know that consumers a lot of the time don't report the fact they've been a victim of a crime because they don't know where to go.

[00:07:28] LouBax: They 

[00:07:29] Jennifer Harris: don't know because there's too many people to report to or speak to. It's so complicated. And so I think the government's really missing a trick here. There's this assumption, we remove section 21, tenants will be empowered to complain about Poor landlord practices or unfair rent increases, and therefore the sector will improve.

[00:07:50] Jennifer Harris: But if tenants don't know where to go with that complaint, Then how are things going to improve? I think they're really missing a trick there. So, 

[00:07:59] LouBax: so [00:08:00] section 21, just to clarify, just for our listeners, and I think probably for ads as well around this, it's about no, no, no, it's no fault evictions, right? So I could have, yeah, we could have it.

[00:08:07] LouBax: You could historically, you can be evicted for no reason. Now there has to be certain criteria for people to be evicted. So it's not, and there's other things like you now with the new legislation. You can't be rejected from renting a property because you've got children or because you want to bring your pet along.

[00:08:22] LouBax: There's lots of additional protections coming in from from a tenant perspective, isn't there? 

[00:08:26] Jennifer Harris: Yeah, absolutely. So for for section 21, the concern that some tenant groups have had is that in the past, in some cases that it might be used as a retaliatory eviction. So a tenant. complains about an issue in their property, and then they get evicted as a result.

[00:08:44] Jennifer Harris: And there's no real protection because the land, the landlord doesn't need to give a reason. Almost regardless of the frequency in, in which that happens, the fact that it could happen, we know leads to insecurity. Tenants feel that they could lose a property and it's really unaffordable to rent at the [00:09:00] moment.

[00:09:00] Jennifer Harris: It's really hard to find a property. So people do feel nervous about making complaints and they think, do you know what? I'm I'll just suck it up. I'll just live with it. I'll just live with the damper mold or I'll just, you know, whatever it might be. 

[00:09:12] Adam: Is there any pressure on landlords to provide that information for whenever, if anything was to go wrong in the homes?

[00:09:19] Adam: Are they required by law to provide information on how to complain or get problems fixed? 

[00:09:26] Jennifer Harris: Yep. So, um, by law, um, at the start of the tenancy, landlords and lessing agents are required to supply a document called the how to rent guide. In that document, it outlines tenants rights and responsibilities and what to do if they have a problem with their tenancy.

[00:09:43] Jennifer Harris: Now, we know from our research that very few tenants actually recall receiving that document. That doesn't necessarily mean it isn't being provided, but it's being provided at the start of a tenancy alongside a big stack of papers, your tenancy agreements, your deposit protection certificate, your, you know, your, your [00:10:00] energy performance certificate, all the bits and bobs that are required to You're moving in, you're stressed.

[00:10:03] Jennifer Harris: Someone hands you a big pack of paper. You're not going to sit there and read through it back to back. You're just trying to get settled into a new property or goes into a drawer. And, and I think that's, that's part of the issue. And also, if you look at the document, it's about 20 pages long and it's lots of texts and it's just not easy for consumers to digest, especially if you're having a problem and you're feeling stressed.

[00:10:25] Jennifer Harris: Um, a really long wordy document is not necessarily what you need to help. Um, help you figure out what to do. And I would say that's the same kind of problem exists with a lot of the information that's online for tenants. Cause there is a lot of information out there, almost too much one could argue, but it's very text heavy, long, big, long word documents and.

[00:10:46] Jennifer Harris: Figuring out which one's the most reliable, how it relates to your personal circumstance. It's really difficult. It's really difficult for tenants. And in some ways I would say, actually, it's, it's difficult for landlords too, because a lot of [00:11:00] landlords have just one property or, you know, between one and four, the large majority have just one or two or three properties and they rent out.

[00:11:09] Jennifer Harris: Alongside other employment to save for the retirement, for example, they're not renting out properties as a professional business. And yet there's all these regulations. There's all these laws that are constantly changing and becoming more complex. And that's happening indeed. Now there's going to be new requirements that landlords have to adhere to your decent home standards, et cetera.

[00:11:29] Jennifer Harris: And actually we know from our research that keeping on top of that can be really difficult for landlords and we know from our research that landlords feel that's just not clearly communicated to them. 

[00:11:38] LouBax: We quite often have the conversation around, like small businesses, the regulations are really heavy across the piece in relation to what businesses have to do.

[00:11:45] LouBax: And there's an expectation that because you're in business, That you can understand all that information, and that's not true. They like, so you end up with vulnerable, so you get vulnerable consumers, but you end up with vulnerable businesses as well. Or like vulnerable landlords in this case, because you're expecting people to understand all that [00:12:00] information.

[00:12:00] LouBax: Just on one of the other points that, um, you made, Jen, around the decent home standard now. So again, in the new, in the new legislation that's coming, it says that landlords have to maintain properties to a decent standard. We don't actually know what that means yet in practice, because that's not been, like, drilled down yet, has it?

[00:12:14] LouBax: Yeah. 

[00:12:14] Jennifer Harris: No, it hasn't been confirmed yet. And I think that's part of the problem with lawmaking in this area. It's, there's not always, it's not always very clear. It can be characterized by a series of stop and starts, like with the minimum energy efficiency requirements, you know, at first it was, you're all going to have to be, you know, C by 2025 or whatever it was.

[00:12:33] Jennifer Harris: And then, oh, no, actually we're going to, you know, that's going to change. And now it's been introduced by 2030. But yeah, it's not, yeah. yet been definitely confirmed and, you know, it is confusing. There's a lot of stopping starts and a lot of like, a lot of, and I think it can make people feel very uncertain, also difficult to plan for the future.

[00:12:50] LouBax: No, but also so from, from the, from the latest statistics and back to the, um, the, the, The Nice Research ads, when we looked at that, renters were identified as a group [00:13:00] of consumers that are, uh, potentially more situationally vulnerable at the moment. Something like, there was something, I think the statistic on this one was, um, I can tell you because I've got it in front of me, 24 percent of working renters have missed a payment in the last 12 months.

[00:13:14] LouBax: So the cost of living crisis, Which I know I'll get fined for saying, Adam. I think we're over it now, 

[00:13:21] Adam: aren't we? I think we're over it. I think I owe you a million pounds. You've already given me all the wine. 

[00:13:25] LouBax: I owe you a million pounds for all the times I've said it. But we're seeing that those people that are in rental properties are becoming more situationally vulnerable, more market based vulnerable, that increased stress, those increased costs, etc.

[00:13:37] LouBax: But again, that's the same for, for landlords. But again, we need to make it easier to access the information and the, the right information at the right time. Because like you've just said, there's no point trying to give a consumer or a, or a landlord, in fact, 50 million pages of words because nobody, has the capacity to read that.

[00:13:56] LouBax: So it's about relevant information at the right time, which is where I think [00:14:00] your, your new portal is coming into play. 

[00:14:03] Jennifer Harris: Yeah, absolutely. And the right time, I think, so it's a really key point because in the same way, we're like, we only read the instruction manuals for stuff when it breaks or when it goes wrong, right?

[00:14:12] Jennifer Harris: And it's the same when things go wrong. In a tenancy, people are only looking for information when they have a problem or issue, and it needs to be provided in the right way and available at the right time. So this new My Housing Issue Gateway service is an initiative being developed by the TDS Charitable Foundation, which is essentially a website which will help people figure out where to go and what to do when they have a problem with their rented property.

[00:14:39] Jennifer Harris: The idea is that it's delivered in a really interactive and engaging way. So rather than Big, long scripts of text, people just answer short questions and they're given an action plan, which is personalized to them and the specific problem that they're facing within this, this, uh, [00:15:00] gateway, there's lots of different little, um, tools to help people, um, address the problem.

[00:15:06] Jennifer Harris: So there might be letter templates, telephone scripts, for example, to help them, you know, With that kind of more official correspondence, which we know can feel quite daunting at time, be that to the letting agent or to an ombudsman, all those different steps are explained in the website itself. There's lots of links to different organizations and resources that can help you within that as well.

[00:15:30] Jennifer Harris: You know, the final step might be, yes, you need to go to your council, you know, need to go to an official body to make a complaint. We're also trying to encourage people to resolve things amicably wherever possible, and we know that for both landlords and tenants that relationship is important. We know often both of them want the tenancy to continue, so it's trying to provide resources and tools and tips and tricks to help people resolve it early and consensually wherever possible.

[00:15:56] Jennifer Harris: But if not, if that's not possible, ensure that [00:16:00] tenants are able to figure out where to go. 

[00:16:02] LouBax: It's about, it's, it's, it's provide, like you say, it's that bite size information, isn't it? Cause actually where we've talked about the landscape being so complicated. Um, if we like drill it down and we say this consumers, tenants, people, people don't care who helps them as long as somebody does, uh, so it's, it's just getting that right information at the right time, which the portal, I keep calling it a portal, it's a gateway, isn't it?

[00:16:22] LouBax: The gateway. 

[00:16:24] Jennifer Harris: Gateway 

[00:16:25] LouBax: will provide that assistance in simple language, in simple terms, so consumers get that right information at the right time. 

[00:16:32] Adam: But you're also giving trusted advice. You're not just going onto the internet where you can just search for anything and you think you've got the right advice, whereas actually, you know, not everything on the internet is true 

[00:16:43] or accurate.

[00:16:44] What? I don't know. I know, I 

[00:16:45] Adam: know. So you're giving that trusted almost verified advice. You're giving people, uh, renters, the confidence, sorry, tenants, the confidence to actually go to those, go to the right people with armed with the right advice and the right information. 

[00:16:58] Jennifer Harris: Absolutely. And [00:17:00] what we often hear from tenants is when we speak to them about the various challenges they face in their tenancies, is there's not one place that's just for private renters.

[00:17:09] Jennifer Harris: It's, it's, You know, that's really just focused for them. And given that, you know, the, the, the significant number of people that rent, given how often problems and challenges do occur, and given, as you said, Louise, that, you know, more and more people are living in the sector that might be experiencing different vulnerabilities.

[00:17:26] Jennifer Harris: I think having that one sort of trusted place that people can go to help them figure out where to go. And, and if they do need a little bit more assistance, you know, say that they look, they look at the tool and they say, actually, I need a little bit more help. There's, there's signposting and, you know, advice about where to, you know, where to get that support.

[00:17:44] Jennifer Harris: But we actually think with information, a lot of tenants as consumers can be empowered to resolve the problem for themselves. They just need that accurate, you know, easy to access information. 

[00:17:54] LouBax: It's that management of expectations, isn't it? We know, because again, people, um, people don't know what their rights are.

[00:17:59] LouBax: [00:18:00] That, that fuels sometimes. The problems around things and actually people are if the information is the same for the tenant or the landlord everybody knows where they are which allows that conversation go right this is what I'm entitled to this what I'm entitled to then you meet in the middle in relation to it because like you said people don't want to get into confrontation generally it's not something that people are leaning into like that it doesn't need to be like that but armed with the right information in simple terms means that those resolutions it can be resolved much you easier for everybody.

[00:18:30] Jennifer Harris: Absolutely. Um, and I think it's, it's also, yeah, getting information that's simple and accessible, but also personalised, and I think that's where, you know, with the housing information and advice that's currently available, it doesn't make best use of the potential that technology can offer us to make a diagnosis or an assessment of people's health.

[00:18:54] Jennifer Harris: problem and then provide something that's a little bit more tailored. So simple, easy to [00:19:00] understand, but also personal to you, I think is, is, is offering something different than what's currently out there. One of the things that will be available within the gateway is a free, um, sort of mid tenancy, uh, resolution service.

[00:19:14] Jennifer Harris: So there's, as I said, you know, tools, templates, telephone scripts, you know, to help people try to resolve the problems by themselves. But if they would like a little bit of assistance, they'll be able to access this tenancy redress service for free. So if you have a problem, could it be about around disrepair, rent arrears, damp, mold, antisocial behavior, um, I can't think of all the different topics.

[00:19:40] Jennifer Harris: No, no, no. So, yeah. 

[00:19:42] LouBax: So, with the, with the resolution service, so do landlords have to be like, what are your member organisations for tenants, or is that just free for everybody? 

[00:19:52] Jennifer Harris: So, the tenancy redress um, service is free for all tenants, so anybody, any tenant can, can access it. [00:20:00] If a landlord wants to initiate the, um, use of the service, if the landlord wants to use it, they have to be, um, protect their deposit with the service.

[00:20:08] Jennifer Harris: TDS or be a member of the NRLA, but if the tenant initiates it, it's free to everybody. 

[00:20:14] Adam: What's the, what's the NRLA, 

[00:20:15] Jennifer Harris: sorry? The National, uh, Residential Landlord Association. 

[00:20:19] LouBax: There's a lot of, see, it's complicated, Adam. It's so complicated, it's too, it's too much, but this is 

[00:20:23] Adam: what we find in our day, in our day job, but there's, in the scams world, how there's so many different agencies combating so many different types of fraud and no one's got a clue what to do and how to report it and how to provide that consumer education piece.

[00:20:36] LouBax: But I have to say, in every bit of the world that I work in, it's like this everywhere. And like, it's just impossible, like, again, we work in this space and I find that sometimes I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. But we do know what we're doing and we have far more knowledge than that, probably than the average person.

[00:20:54] LouBax: So again, for an average consumer, just to be able to navigate this, just to get some help or information is [00:21:00] impossible. 

[00:21:01] Jennifer Harris: No, I think that's really true because, you know, I've been doing housing policy research for over 12 years now. And still sometimes when I sit down and I think. you know, exactly how that landscape fits together and, you know, where you would go with a specific problem.

[00:21:15] Jennifer Harris: I have to sit down and think about it. It's not simple. It's not simple, you know? So I really, I really think this is, um, you know, and at the moment it is a signposting tool. It's a diagnostic tool, you know, whether or not you're a tenant or a landlord or someone working in the space, do go on and have a play, have a look, even if you don't have a problem at the moment and see what it can offer, because it might be that, you know, it could be something useful for you to signpost your.

[00:21:39] Jennifer Harris: Customers too, or if you're supporting tenants or you're working in this space, you might be able to, to, to signpost people to the website, but we hope that in the future we can build out to something that looks a little bit more like a single access point to access housing redress. So this is something that's lots of different experts have working in this space have been recommending [00:22:00] for that.

[00:22:00] Jennifer Harris: 20 years to be honest, I said, this is so complicated. We need to make it simpler. If there was one play, one access point that people could go to and they would be sort of referred on directly, or they could make the complaint there directly. That would be much better. So we hope that this can be built out to look something like that.

[00:22:18] Jennifer Harris: I'm not sure if I'm going into much too much. No, no, it's absolutely fine. 

[00:22:21] Adam: It's something, it's a really good place to start where there's one kind of gateway where people can go with any, with any problems they may have and it can signpost them to the right place. And also it's something that's going to improve and evolve over time and it will only get better.

[00:22:37] Jennifer Harris: Absolutely. And I think it's, I think it's quite, it's, you kind of have to see it to, to, to, to, to, to understand it. But, you know, with these action plans, it is really like a step, step by step. sort of plan for people, step by step action plan that people can adopt. And you just get the bits that are relevant to you.

[00:22:54] Jennifer Harris: So it asks you what you've already done and say, you've already reported it to your landlord or letting [00:23:00] agent. And so you've already written an official letter, whatever it might be. You're just going to get the bits of information that are relevant to where you are at. in, in the process of trying to resolve that issue.

[00:23:09] Jennifer Harris: Some people will have done absolutely nothing. Some people will be a little bit further along. So again, it's getting people just as much information that they need, um, in order to, to, to move forward. 

[00:23:19] Adam: And do you have to register who you are? So you're not, you're not going in over and over again and filling out the same information.

[00:23:25] Adam: It knows who you are, recognizes who you are, and it, and it, and it, Kind of tells you where you're at, 

[00:23:31] Jennifer Harris: you'll be able to at the end, once you've gone through sort of the different question questions to give you this personalized plan, you'll be able to download that or save it or email, email it to yourself.

[00:23:41] Jennifer Harris: So you can refer back to it because of course, some of the different steps might take a little bit of time. So you can save it and then refer back to it. 

[00:23:49] LouBax: It's still be something as well, because we recently, we did a campaign on rental scams. specifically targeted quite as students as well, because we know it's that time of year where students will be [00:24:00] looking for rental properties.

[00:24:01] LouBax: This sort of tool will be really useful for universities as well, and for students going into that sort of, because again, massive amounts of vulnerability there from a student perspective, student accommodation, renting, potentially privately renting if they haven't managed to get into student halls. And again, it's that first time moving away from home, isn't it?

[00:24:16] LouBax: So you've got that like, potentially lack of knowledge, which increases that Susceptibility or potential vulnerability for consumers. So again, this is something that's going to be really useful for that. We'll put it on the website when it's done as well. Oh, thank 

[00:24:29] Jennifer Harris: you so much. Yeah. And you know, and I think there's real potential, you know, we've been speaking to lots of different organizations and government bodies and stuff.

[00:24:36] Jennifer Harris: And I think there's real interest in developing this type of tool. in other consumer markets as well. Um, so that people can get, yeah, like, like you, you know, you mentioned information that's easier to access personal situation. Yeah. We're about to 

[00:24:53] LouBax: launch something on that, but that will, we'll save that for another podcast, but we are going to launch something exciting.

[00:24:58] LouBax: The technology is 

[00:24:59] Adam: there. We, [00:25:00] we, we just need to be able to use it properly. Don't we? That's, that's the thing. The technology is there for us to use. We just got to create these, these tools for people to use. It's simple to use. 

[00:25:08] Jennifer Harris: Absolutely. And if, you know, the inspiration for the gateway come off the back of similar tools that exist in other countries.

[00:25:15] Jennifer Harris: So in Belgium, for example, in Canada, in the Netherlands, there's similar tools to help consumers figure out what to do. where to go when they have a problem or a dispute. And, you know, we initially, we looked at some of these, these different websites and I was like, why doesn't something like this exist in England?

[00:25:38] Jennifer Harris: That's nuts. 

[00:25:39] LouBax: Yeah. 

[00:25:40] Adam: Crazy, isn't it? It's crazy. It is. Whereas there's so many tools and bits of software out there for businesses to get their clients on board and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, there's nothing actually for consumers, but hopefully. There will be. And there now is for tenants. And will be for consumers, Louise, won't there?

[00:25:57] LouBax: There will be for consumers, yes. We will. [00:26:00] 

[00:26:00] Adam: Jennifer, thank you so much for coming today. It's been Really insightful. Just one final piece, I guess, is, is how do people access the gateway? 

[00:26:09] Jennifer Harris: Um, so it, it will be in lots of different places, including on the TDS Charitable Foundation website and TDS Group's website.

[00:26:16] Jennifer Harris: We hope you there at Consumer Friend will be hosted on your website as well. Um, and there'll be, you know, there's lots and lots of different organizations that we're, we're in touch with. So hopefully you'll be seeing it crop up in many different places, but initially you can go to Consumer Friend, you TDS Charitable Foundation and access it through those routes.

[00:26:34] Adam: It will be there. Consumer Friend, as ever, is available at consumerfriend. org. uk. Please like, subscribe, and share, and rate, and all that fun stuff that we like people doing on the podcast platforms. Uh, Louise, thank you very much. Thank you, Ads. And Jennifer, thank you very much. 

[00:26:52] Thank you very 

[00:26:52] Adam: much. Bye bye, everyone.

[00:26:54] This is Consumer [00:27:00] Friend.