If the next government is to get a grip on the housing crisis it must reverse the decline in social housing and to deliver 100,000s of high quality, green, council homes.

Anny Cullum, ACORN Policy & Research Officer 

10 years ago over 100 local residents attended the launch meeting of ACORN in Easton, Bristol, voting on our first campaign. Following months of door knocking in the area, there was one thing that came up time and time again that people had major issues with: housing. 

Given the necessity of housing, and the importance of having the stability and security of a home in living a healthy life, it’s not at all surprising that this ranks highly in people’s concerns for their community and wellbeing. 

The term ‘housing crisis’ is a widely recognised phrase, with regular appearances in column inches, radio talk shows and statements by politicians. These two words in fact encompass a whole slew of issues, from standards to availability, security to affordability. 

This is the result of a perfect storm that has been bubbling away for decades, which government after government has failed to get a grip on, leading to this crisis that we suffer with today. 

A key theme underpinning this crisis is the lack of social and council homes available. Since the 1980s, the housing policy of successive governments has led to 1.5 million council homes being demolished or sold off through the ‘Right to Buy’ and not replaced. Meanwhile, 1.29 million households in England are currently stuck on waiting lists for a council or social home.

At a similar time, the 1988 Housing Act introduced, amongst other things, Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, and made it a much less risky investment to become a private landlord. Section 21 allows landlords to evict a tenant with 2 months notice for no reason at all, as long as they are outside a fixed term contract. 

This hasn’t just uprooted households on very short notice, causing stress, requiring time off work to house hunt, and forcing kids to move schools when no suitable homes are available locally, but it has left tenants scared to complain about dangers and disrepair in the home for fear of losing it.

So from the 80s to now, while social housing numbers were shrinking, the private housing sector grew, with the number of private landlords increasing exponentially. The problem is, the social sector has controlled rents, the private sector does not. 

With long-term, good quality and affordable social homes no longer an option for most, more and more people are now stuck in expensive, unsuitable and poor quality private rentals.

One result of high rents and frequent moves is that the dream of home ownership, an aspiration long lauded by governments as a marker of the success of housing policies, is increasingly out of reach. Instead of saving for a first home, renters are paying a huge proportion of their earnings to their landlord. A report by the Building Societies Association earlier this week stated that first time buyers are finding it the toughest time in 70 years to buy their first home.

Anyone who has rented has likely come across a cowboy landlord making huge amounts of profit for letting out a poor quality or harmful home, had a deposit unfairly withheld or has been kicked out for no good reason. 

These are issues that we hear about from our members on a daily basis, and is why housing has remained our bread and butter, despite our union growing and becoming a community union fighting on many issues.

We’ve resisted dozens of evictions across the country, won £hundreds of thousands in repairs, returned deposits, compensation and rent reductions, and forced Councils to implement landlord licensing schemes to clamp down on bad landlords.

We’ve done this by bringing people together to take collective, direct action to force the change we need. From picketing a lettings agent’s office, occupying a Council meeting, or sometimes just by making a phone call or sending a letter.

Door by door, street by street, we have built an organisation that is fighting for our members and for our communities, but increasingly is also forcing policy change in the ‘corridors of power.’ 

We’ve put bad landlords on notice, gained media attention and made renting an issue that politicians cannot ignore.

In April 2019, Theresa May’s government announced “the biggest change to the private rental sector for a generation,” with a promise to end section 21.

While renters welcomed this news, we were left waiting. And waiting. And waiting…

What has followed is years of foot dragging, flip flopping and hot air. First the pandemic delayed the Bill, Liz Truss was set to abandon the Bill but u-turned in the face of determined opposition, and then it was delayed while the Tories got their house in order as it looked like 40 backbench MPs would rebel.   

It’s only down to the determination of the renters’ movement and the Renters Reform Coalition, of which ACORN is part, that this is still on the statute books. 

All the while renters, and society more widely, have continued to suffer. Recent analysis of government data by the Renters’ Reform Coalition has found that nearly 85,000 households have claimed homeless prevention support from their council after being issued with a section 21 since the promise to ban them, with the real number of section 21s issued much higher.

Today, the Bill finally re enters Parliament for its third reading. But since it was last there, serious concessions have been made to backbench MPs that have left it fundamentally weakened. 

As the Renters Reform Coalition has said in a statement released earlier “we now have a bill that abolishes section 21 in name only… This legislation is intended to give the impression of improving conditions for renters, but in fact it preserves the central power imbalance at the root of why renting in England is in crisis.”

It’s far from too late to change the Bill, so we’re calling for ministers to meet with renters organisations and to table amendments to make sure it delivers the transformative changes needed, including;

• A reversal of concessions that would see a section 21 ‘no fault’ eviction ban delayed indefinitely, and tenants trapped in tenancy agreements for 6 months
• A limit on in-tenancy rent rises to prevent unaffordable increases being used as ‘economic’ no-fault evictions, and strong safeguards to prevent unscrupulous landlords abusing the new grounds for eviction which risk being used in the same way as section 21 notices 
• Extending notice periods for tenants when they are to be evicted to 4 months’ notice, rather than 2 months’ notice proposed at present

Whether the Bill will be passed into legislation within this Parliament is uncertain, and while Labour has correctly identified the urgency of the matter, previously promising a ‘Renters Charter’ in their first 100 days if successful in the upcoming general election, simply passing the Bill in its current form goes nowhere near far enough to deliver the changes renters desperately need.

Looking ahead, if the next government is to get a grip on the housing crisis it must reverse the decline in social housing and to deliver 100,000s of high quality, green, council homes, to end our dependence on an insecure and unsafe housing market for one of the most necessary human needs. 

Ultimately, if we are to build a healthier, happier and more equal society in which our communities can thrive, we need to make sure that everyone has access to a safe, decent and affordable home, something we will continue to fight tooth and nail for.

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