The NRLA’s media campaigning – the year in review
May 2025
With the end of the 2024/25 financial year having come and gone, it’s a good time to stop and reflect on the work we’ve undertaken for our members over the past year.
Many of our readers will already be familiar with the NRLA campaigning in UK media that has taken place since the NRLA’s merger. But the past twelve months represented a significant milestone in how we communicate our members’ concerns to an often sceptical media.
With the arrival of the Renters’ Rights Bill, the 2024 General Election, new minimum energy efficiency requirements, and the first Labour Budget since 2010, the NRLA’s Communications Team had no shortage of opportunities to make sure the voice of landlords was heard by all key audiences.
So, what steps did we take to make sure our members played a pivotal role in shaping the national conversation around the future of the PRS?
Our media impact
In total, our campaigning efforts resulted in 4,997 pieces of press coverage across national, trade and regional media outlets. We also secured 610 items of broadcast coverage with broadcasters such as BBC News, ITV News, BBC Radio 4’s ‘You & Yours’, Times Radio and BBC Radio Five Live.
Our spokespeople have made a significant contribution to this year-on-year expansion of our media footprint, with many new voices across the NRLA taking the time to articulate our key messages. These spokespeople undertook 104 media interviews over the course of the year – a hugely significant development which ensured we were able to take a prominent position in the wider debate around the future of the sector.
The ‘But Why?’ factor
But what relevance does this work have for the average NRLA member? The short answer: it’s enabled us to argue the case of the average landlord to a range of target audiences. We recognise the need to correct some of the false narratives which have emerged in the past, narratives which don’t focus on good landlords (who represent the overwhelming majority of landlords) across the market.
The high levels of coverage we achieved meant we maintained our already-prominent media profile.
More to the point, we managed to convey the human side of private landlords. Thanks to NRLA members who were prepared to talk about their stories with the press, we saw a notable upsurge in the number of ‘landlord case study interviews’ we were able to set up with a variety of different outlets.
What’s next for us?
At a time when the Renters’ Rights Bill is moving at pace towards the Royal Assent stage of the legislative process, now, more than ever, we plan to build on this strong platform over the coming year.
Whilst our media campaigning efforts continue to focus on rental reform and the effect that the Bill’s implementation will have on private landlords, the next year promises potentially significant changes to minimum energy efficiency standards.
We’re in the thick of comms planning for Q3 and Q4 2025 given we expect this to be an extremely busy period for the market. We’ll also be giving our members more in the way of updates on our campaigning, so please do keep your eyes peeled for these over the coming months.
Finally, if you’d like to have a longer chat about the work we do in this area, or perhaps would like to talk about becoming a landlord case study, please feel free to email [email protected].
