Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Tenants

  • The People on the Frontline of Britain's Housing Emergency
  • By: Vicky Spratt
  • Narrated by: Vicky Spratt
  • Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (34 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Tenants cover art

Tenants

By: Vicky Spratt
Narrated by: Vicky Spratt
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Social Distance Between Us cover art
Split: Class Divides Uncovered cover art
Too Big to Jail cover art
Gaffs cover art
Brit(ish) cover art
Brave New Home cover art
The Shame Game cover art
Positive Populism cover art
The Sickness Is the System cover art
Why You Won't Get Rich cover art
The Lazarus Heist cover art
Uncommon Wealth cover art
Behind Closed Doors cover art
Follow the Money cover art
Now We Have Your Attention cover art
Crippled cover art

Summary

One of the best books of 2022, Metro, Evening Standard, Refinery29, Cosmopolitan.

Tony is facing eviction instead of enjoying retirement; Limarra isn't 'homeless enough' to get help from the council and for Kelly and her asthmatic son Morgan, another new rented house is a matter of life and death. This is 21st-century Britain, where millions are forced into the private rental sector—a sector that creates profit for landlords, not safe and stable homes for tenants.

In this fierce and moving account, journalist Vicky Spratt traces decades of bad policy decisions to show how and why the British dream of homeownership has withered and the safety net of social housing has broken. Through the lives of those in the renting trap, she illuminates the ways this crisis is devastating our health, communities and political landscape. But, as the COVID epidemic showed, there are also real, radical steps we can take to give everyone the chance of a good home.

©2022 Vicky Spratt (P)2022 Profile Books Ltd

Critic reviews

"A must-read." (Cosmopolitan)

"A major new book on the history and politics of renting." (Evening Standard)

"There is nobody better placed to write a book that tells the stories of 'Britain's housing shame'." (Metro)

What listeners say about Tenants

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hugely important book

Whilst I’ve got some understanding of those reviewers who struggled with the lilting delivery, the book benefitted from being read by its author, in my opinion. It is an instructive and sobering analysis of the housing crisis in the UK and, regardless of your political persuasion, well worth a listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good purchase. Glad I bought it…

Great book, great content. It’s just such a shame that the narrator (who naturally has a really lovely narrating voice) uses unnatural intonation. It’s as if she’s been tutored on how to speak on an audiobook but has overused the techniques. I hate leaving negative reviews but I just hope if there’s a sequel there is a more natural delivery because it’s distracting and I can only do a chapter at a time. Great content though - I do recommend it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A very one sided book

This book is really about a young woman who can’t see the wood for the trees. She hates private landlords and sees them all as bad people trying to scam ordinary normal folk, when in reality most landlords just want to provide a nice warm safe home but also help themselves plan for retirement. She had a bad experience when she was 7 years old which has obviously scarred her for life. Another reviewer said she was like Greta Thunberg and I honestly couldn’t agree more. It’s a few select people who’ve had some misfortune in their lives but haven’t we all and can’t go round saying “woe is me”!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Needs sympathetic editing!

This was undoubtedly well intentioned and represents a sincere investment of time and emotion, but far too much of the latter.
The over—emphatic reading style is a serious distraction, but so is the book’s unnecessary length and its concentration on a few individual horror stories that divert the reader’s focus from the real problems in the machinery of government. The accounts of surveys snd stats are what we need and all the fashionable tropes of woke ideology are a matter of opinion and not fact. The author is preaching to the choir at a time when oreaching is a real obstacle to getting important issues across to the public at large, nd screeds of superficial idealism iss not helpful.
The epilogue was the time to bring together a factual account of the problems with suggested solutions rather than weeping and wailing and doing small passable imitation of Greta as an irritating teenager.
What concerns me is that professional reviewers seem to have fails in pointing out the serious defects that impair this production from achieving maximum impact.
This writer attended a lecture by a high/up from Shelter on the London housing scene some years back that made far more impression than this poorly edited and tediously delivered rant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An important read

A detailed and authoritative read - highly recommend listening to this if you live in the UK!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting Book, terrible narration.

Really interesting book relevant to the modern world BUT the way the author speaks makes this really hard to listen to, bizarre tone scaling up and down as if asking a question during standard sentences.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Difficult to listen to

The lilting delivery is difficult to listen to for long periods of time. But in general this was a very insightful book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

insightful and passionate

As a housing professional who has worked in the sector for nearly 25 years, I was interested in what Vicky would have to say. I was impressed with how well researched and insightful this was. It was brought to life by case studies. Great to hear someone as passionate about this issue as I am.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sublime

I loved this simple, down-to-Earth exploration of Britain’s messed up housing crisis illustrated with real-life examples of its horrors. Throughout claims are reasonably backed up and referenced and ideas presented, not necessarily Spratt’s own but an amalgamation of existing ideas which portrays hope that there is a way forward, which doesn’t have to be (overly) radical.

The narration is spot-on and Spratt’s frustrations are clearly voiced. If a paperback version is published then I’ll buy that in the future to dip in and out of and I’m confident I’d buy anything else Spratt writes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!