Support the People's Housing Charter
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The UK’s housing ‘crisis’ is the result of decades of government failure to meet people’s housing needs, while promoting ever greater inequality in access to land and property.
On any night in one of the richest countries in the world, more than 10,000 homeless families are living in a B&B while at least another 2500 people are sleeping on the street. These statistics are unlikely to be disconnected from the fact that the number of people in the notoriously insecure private rented sector has doubled in the last 20 years to nearly 20% of all households.
This lack of secure affordable homes is in large part the result of a mis-management of resources rather than lack of housing. Property speculators can profit from leaving hundreds of thousands of properties empty in the UK, and tax incentives promote the ownership of second-homes and AirB&Bs that divert hundreds of thousands more properties from becoming much needed homes.
Unequal access to housing has been exacerbated over recent decades by the transfer of housing and house-building from the public sector to private finance, and houses are increasingly seen as an investment vehicle rather than a fundamental human right. The failure of the ‘free market'’ to deliver the affordable houses that people need has also been facilitated by a lack of real local democracy over planning and development.
The government’s plan to further loosen democratic control over the planning process needs to be seen in this context of a country with extremely uneven distribution of wealth and power, racial inequality, and an unwillingness to tackle the biggest threat of all, which is the climate emergency.
Buildings produce no less than 40 percent of the UK’s total carbon emissions, and construction produces 63 percent of the UK’s 200million tonnes of rubbish a year. There is no way to reduce carbon emissions without radically overhauling the buildings we live in and what we build - but so long as there is profit in polluting there will be no change of course without drastic and dramatic government action. First and foremost in order to make far-reaching and rapid decisions about how we use land then we need to own it - so the sale of public land has to stop and the buying of private land for community use has to start.
In the process of implementing these changes we could also create a much richer physical and social environment that enhances all our lives.
We call on local and national governments to adopt the following principles:
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Housing is a right for all. Everyone should have a home that is affordable and in good repair, with enough living space and access to work, education and community amenities.
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Providing housing need not, and must not, contribute to the destruction of the environment on which we all depend.
To achieve these principles we need to adopt the following measures:
1. Convert long-term vacant properties to social housing
2. Refurbish and repurpose - rather than demolish - existing buildings, to provide homes or to revitalise empty high streets through community use.
3. Where new buildings are necessary they must be built with sustainable materials and be truly carbon neutral (without ‘carbon offset’ payments).
4. Introduce and enforce rent controls and secure tenancies for all renters.
5. Tax the increasing value of private land to fund public investment - a land tax.
6. Retrofit all buildings to the highest environmental and safety standards including insulation and affordable renewable energy schemes.
7. Introduce participatory democracy in all areas of planning and control over our homes. This could include planning juries, citizen assemblies, tenant associations and tenant co- operatives.
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SUPPORTED BY
Radical Housing Network
Fuel Poverty Action
Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC)
New Economics Foundation
Insulate Britain
Streets Kitchen
Rebel City Collective
Rainbow Collective
Greater Manchester Housing Action
Ledbury Action Group
Haringey Solidarity Group
Southwark XR
Pamela Smith, Chair, National Bargee Travellers Association
Supported by (in an individual capacity):
Albane, Concrete Action
Harpreet Aujla, Southwark Law Centre
Joshua Barnett, Public Housing Workers Union Coalition, New York
Caoimhe Basketter, Extinction Rebellion Southwark
Kaddy Beck, Save Bertie Park Oxford
Sean Benstead, Greater Manchester Labour for a Green New Deal
Steven Burak, Fuel Poverty Action
India Burgess, Green New Deal UK
Jackson Caines, Harrow Law Centre
Fred Coford, Unite Community Hackney & Islington
Eileen Conn, Peckham Vision
Dominique Cournault, E2 collective- Save our space E2
Yehia Currie, Unite Community
Liz Davies, Housing rights barrister
Davida Dawkins, Save Our Community SE11 (Denby Court Warriors)
Zana Dean, Tread Studio Architects
Aysen Dennis, Fight4Aylesbury
Susan Dolan, The Peoples Hub
Michael Edwards, UCL Bartlett School
Cllr Pete Elliot, Lambeth Green Party
Janette Evans , Barnet Housing Action and London Renters Union activist
Claudia Firth, Redwood Housing Co -op
Ms Ruth Garde, Haringey Green New Deal Rising
Udo Grashoff, Universität Leipzig
Danielle Gregory, Tower Blocks UK
Cllr Nicole Griffiths, Green Party councillor Lambeth Council
John Hamilton, Lewisham People Before Profit
Terry Harper, Vice-Chair, Cities of London and Westminster Labour Party
Colin Jones, Labour Party
Leah Jones, Southwark Defend Council Housing
Elle Kimberley, RHN Cornwall
Grace Lally, Radical Housing Network
Patrick Lawless, Hawkstone TRA
Tamima Lerkins, Women Asylum Seeker Housing
Alexandra Lilley, Community Plan for Holloway
John Lipetz, Unite; Socialist Health Association; Labour Party
Dr Rex McKenzie, Department of Economics, Kingston University
Kate Macintosh, Retired Architect RIBA
Betiel Mahari, Guiness Trust AST
Will McMahon, Action on Empty Homes
Sabine Mairey, Save Central Hill
Pascale Mitchell, Yes to Fair Redevelopment
Siobhan Mooney, Friends of Myatts Field South Estate
Henry Mott, Unite the Uniion
Glyn Oliver, Unite Community Housing Action Group
Luke Plowden, Refurbish Don't Demolish
Deirdre Quinn, RHN
Rebekah Ross, Streets Kitchen/London Renters Union
Celia Scott, Dolphin Square Preservation Society
Professor Peter Somerville, University of Lincoln, XR and LGND
Helen Spriggs, Unite Branch LE1267
Tsiresy Domingos Tembwa, Engineer
Doug Thorpe, Left Unity
Franklin Thomas, Haringey Solidarity Group
Dilraj Tiwana, St Mungo's
Ann Vanner, ACT for Housing
Eloise Waldon-Day, Extinction Rebellion Southwark
Professor Paul Watt, Birbeck University of London
Ed Webb-ingall, The London Community Video Archive and ‘Forming a Residents Research Group’
Senaka Weeraman, Designer
Charlie Wiseman, Grassman
Andy Worthington, Save Reginald, Save Tidemill campaign in Deptford
Sam Young, Cardiff University
Johanna, Action for Fire Safety Justice