“Millions of us hoped the new Burnham-led Government would turn its words into actions on council homes and support for renters. But already those hopes are being dashed.”
By Homes for All
For millions of people, rent, food and energy bills are draining their incomes and benefits. Self-care, such as visiting the dentist or opticians, has become another financial burden.
The heatwave this summer revealed the failure of successive governments to address climate change, leaving some struggling to breathe in poorly ventilated homes. As winter approaches, many will suffer due to lack of updated insulation and rising energy bills.
The failure of successive governments to address the cost of living and housing crisis has fed the rise of the far-right attacking those seeking asylum placed in temporary accommodation. At the same time, Reform UK are proposing racist and discriminatory housing policy.
Millions of us hoped the new Burnham-led Government would turn its words into actions on council homes and support for renters. But already those hopes are being dashed. Even short-term rent controls for private renters have been rejected.
And the £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes investment programme, which could have been allocated to council house building/acquisition, is instead open to Housing Associations and private developers under the guise of “strategic partners”. Private sector demands will continue to dictate, as they are given permission to build rabbit-hutch homes that few can afford to live in.
At the same time, there is growing concern at the scale of planning permissions being given for AI data centres, often displacing plans for council housing. The Save Brick Campaign is just one example where the Secretary of State for Housing, Angela Rayner, has gone against the wishes of the community and the Council, in a borough with desperate need for council housing, like so many others across the country.
These decisions in the interests of the private sector will only increase homelessness and social housing waiting lists. Already, one in 21 children in London are in temporary accommodation, with tens of thousands spending their whole lives in temporary accommodation, forced to move around and change schools multiple times.
Our communities are experiencing severe overcrowding and disrepair, at the mercy of rogue landlords, with others sent across the country or with high rents leading to destitution.
Instead of transferring staggering and unsustainable amounts of money directly to private landlords through housing benefit and tax subsidies, the Government must invest in desperately needed social rent council homes. Shelter has estimated that building 90,000 new social homes a year would pay for itself within just three years.
To address the climate emergency, we can also expand the social housing stock by ending demolitions and instead acquiring, retrofitting and rebuilding the thousands of empty homes so they are fit for the 21st century.
The Grenfell fire is a constant reminder of the need for rigorous fire and safety regulations as well as repair standards. The outsourcing of local authority inspection and other services needs to end, to ensure developers are held to account.
The failure to do so continues to be counted in tenants’ lives – a recent death in a tower block fire, with flooding and water shortages in the same area, shows the ongoing havoc of unchecked development led by financial motives.
Fixing the housing crisis is crucial for defeating the far-right, who try to blame refugees and migrants for the lack of genuinely affordable homes. Instead, let’s unite to grow the housing movement we need, to win the affordable, safe, secure and accessible homes we need for all.
Councillors and communities should demand landlords fund independent, democratic tenant organisation on estates and across tenures, to support the rebuilding of the tenant movement.
A 5-point plan to unite around and address the housing crisis:
1. Government investment in a mass council housing provision programme, including requisitioning of empty homes and abolition of ‘right to buy’
2. Rent controls and secure tenancies in the private rental sector. Robust regulation of housing associations
3. New funding to repair and refurbish existing council housing – do not demolish unless refurb is impossible
4. Adequate funding for fire safety, and for retrofitting and thermal insulation
5. Planning for the people and the planet, and not for developers’ profits
Diary Dates:
- Mass Lobby of Barnet Council 20th October
- Eve of Budget – March Against Austerity 27 October
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