'Patronising' TV reporter's rant about young tenants

A TV presenter has been called “patronising” during an interview about rental properties in which she ranted about her own experience with tenants.

Sky News presenter Jayne Seckler was interviewing Kirsty Archer, who had received an eviction notice recently.

Ms Archer was speaking about the difficulty in finding a rental property in London along with high rental prices which she says are “a systemic problem”.

She says some people have to rent and can’t afford to buy a property.

Seckler then speaks about her own experience with tenants.

″Some would say – and I am speaking as somebody who has rented flats (and) who also rents flats out – that especially with the younger generation in terms of renters you very often find that tenants don’t really know how to do a great deal in homes,” Seckler says.

“I, for example, have had tenants complaining because lights have popped – because they don’t know how to change light bulbs. I’ve had tenants complaining about the heating – they haven’t turned the boiler on.”

She adds most problems landlords are confronted with are “very obvious things” tenants could easily solve with “common sense”.

”Have you found amongst your friends that you perhaps aren’t equipped with all the necessary skills to rent?” Seckler says.

Ms Archer hits back and calls Seckler’s comments patronising. It seems she’s not alone in that assessment either.

Jon Stone, from The Independent newspaper, tweeted video of the interview with many condemning Seckler as “smug, patronising and just plain rude”.

“What the actual hell is she doing?” one woman tweeted.

“Even if she does have tenants who can’t change a light bulb or work a boiler (traits she’s decided are age-related), what does that have to do with people of all ages being evicted for no actual reason? Unbelievable.”

Jayne Seckler apologises

One man tweeted Seckler should apologise “for herself and her snobby, privileged attitude” while another called her “utterly ghastly” and “unprofessional”.

“This interview kind of sums up society right now better than anything else I can think of,” another man tweeted.

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has since confirmed that it received 15 complaints about the interview, and now Seckler has issued an apology.

“Clearly yesterday I got the tone and content of an interview wrong and it has upset many people,” she tweeted.

“I am sure many of us will have made a mistake at work – unfortunate for me mine is a lot more public than most. Please be assured I have taken the many comments on board. Mea culpa.”

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