Category: Uncategorized

Matthew Pennycook has written to the Chair of Homes England, the body which hands out government grant for housing. Amongst other things he has called for it “to take steps to ensure that the Agency is maximising the number of social rent homes delivered through the allocation of remaining Affordable Homes Programme funding and that … Continue reading Grant needed for 90,000+ social rent homes a year

Labour's first housing priority should be council housing The proposed changes by the new government to the National Planning Policy Framework will not resolve the housing crisis. The key to doing that is funding the building and acquisition of social rent homes on the scale or 100,000 and more a year. The Town and Country … Continue reading Planning changes will not resolve the housing crisis

"Councils cannot provide the services nor the council homes that are needed if they are not funded on the basis of social needs." At the launch of Labour's local government campaign Keir Starmer was asked if a Labour government would plug the £4 billion funding gap of local authorities over the next two years; the … Continue reading Labour needs to break with austerity, not continue it

"Lisa Nandy’s insinuation that opposition to the right-to-buy equates to opposition to working-class people owning their own home is disgraceful and divisive" says Carol Hayton Lisa Nandy has used an Interview in the Times, published on 29th July, to recycle her suggestion that opposition to the Right to Buy is simply, “a totemic issue for … Continue reading Will Lisa Nandy be a housing reformer or just a headline grabber?

Coral Jones (Chair of the LSHA) reports that the London branch of the Socialist Health Association has voted to affiliate to the Labour Campaign for Council Housing. Members voted to affiliate to LCCH after hearing a presentation by Martin Wicks of LCCH and other housing campaigners at our general meeting on 14th December 2022 . … Continue reading London Socialist Health Association affiliates to the Labour Campaign for Council Housing

This is taken from a Leicester council newsletter. Radical steps to address the housing crisis in Leicester are being set out in a new action plan by Leicester City Council. The authority is declaring a housing crisis and is calling for urgent action from central Government to ease pressure caused by the growing demand for … Continue reading Leicester Council declares a housing crisis and calls for an end to Right to Buy

Decades of zero investment in council housing, combined with the wealthy buying up second homes and holiday lets, has driven property prices so high that currently, to suggest people on our waiting list look for properties in the private sector is disingenuous Our campaign member Emma Taylor (pictured), Cabinet Member for Citizens Services (which includes … Continue reading Worthing council declares a cost of living emergency

Labour Party member and tenant activist Georgina Schueller, says Homes for Lambeth, the council owned private company, is part of the problem, not the solution of the housing crisis.This was her short speech to a council Cabinet meeting recently. I haven’t had time to scrutinize your figures across all small sites which are quite opaque … Continue reading Homes for Lambeth is “part of the problem”

Penhill Estate in Swindon The government’s affordable rent product, introduced a decade ago, means some tenants are being fleeced for no good reason other than they can be and it has to stop, argues Martin Wicks From Inside Housing Recently, I discovered that a tenant living in a three-bedroom house on Penhill, a 1950s council estate … Continue reading Time to end the use of (un)affordable rent

This is a discussion article by Martin Wicks. Faced with the possibility of an 8% rent increase next year for 'social housing' tenants, how can we campaign against it, and what should we demand? What do you think? Council and housing association tenants can expect a 4.1% rent increase in April this year. After 4 … Continue reading Rent freeze for tenants?