Protest on budget day called for an end to the scandal of cold homes

Up to 100 people joined Fuel Poverty Action on 6 March. Homes for All and activists from Unite Community, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), Greenpeace and many more turned up outside Parliament for the Unite 4 Energy For All protest to highlight the number of people suffering due to cold and damp homes.

The Spring Budget will continue government’s policies which actively contributed to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths.

Speakers called for radical change in the interests of working class people and an end to the drive for profits and protecting private companies.

More pics on our FB page


Please sign the online 5 point plan for council housing – this petition calls for a radical housing policy: https://forms.gle/Tf6QHtVW7iFV6RsW7

APPG inquiry gathers momentum as more feedback meetings planned

Tenants and residents gather in Rochdale
Tenants and residents gather in Lancaster for anti-demolition meeting

In the latest feedback sessions local residents and councillors met in Southwark and Lancaster.

The Lancaster meeting highlighted more demolition and sell off threats to a local estate.

We have since learned of a decision to demolish six blocks in Leeds, and emergency evacuation of a Bristol estate block.

Further Inquiry sessions are planned, including the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and also in Manchester, Luton, Reading and Bristol .

The deadline for responses has been extended. There is still time to organise a feedback session in your area.

The deadline for email and written submissions is 5th January 2024. You can respond in as much detail as you like. 

By email to matt.western.mp@parliament.uk   or by post to Council Housing Inquiry c/o DCH PO Box 33519 London E2 9WW More details here: https://mattwestern.org/news-article/appg-for-council-housing-inquiry/

APPG Inquiry launch report

Gove threatens to ‘Turbo-boost’ estate demolitions

Defend Council Housing activist, Paul Burnham explains what’s behind Michael Gove’s new plans for housing.

Paul speaking at a Haringey anti-demolition meeting in 2016

Leveling Up Secretary Michael Gove has unveiled a ‘long-term plan for housing’ based on ten principles – but his principles do NOT include providing a decent, secure and affordable home for everyone.

Instead, there will be additional subsidies to support the demolition of existing estates. We need to push back, and refurbish rather than demolish.

Gove wants to build garden villages such as ‘the outstanding Welborne development’ at Fareham in Hampshire, ‘championed by my colleague Suella Braverman’. There could be as little as 7.3% affordable housing in this 6,000-home scheme. Fareham Council’s own housing service even made a formal objection to the low level of affordable housing provision.

Building unaffordable housing is part of the problem.

Full article here – Michael Gove speech and estate demolitions 06/09/2023

Big audience for Peter Apps’ book on the scandal of Grenfell fire

Over 50 people attended Peter Apps’ talk about ‘Show Me the Bodies’ book at Bookmarks Bookshop and many others attended online
Thanks to everyone who came along and also joined us online to listen and discuss with Peter Apps his book on how and why the Grenfell Fire happened. The meeting contributed to the debate around the need for radical changes to housing policy.

You can watch the video of the meeting on YouTube

Housing campaigners join XR Big One, propose National Day of Action – video

A short video of housing activists who came together to join XR Housing and Radical Housing Network as part of Extinction Rebellion’s week long campaign to highlight the climate emergency and what needs to be done to save the planet.

A snapshot of the six speakers who joined the demand for radical change and action to bring about housing justice for all.

Six minute video here

National Housing Day of Action

Radical Housing Network are proposing a national housing Day of Action in July and are inviting all groups to be part of it. Homes 4 All has agreed to join.

There will be a planning meeting on 10 May at 7pm – Register here

UNITE strike at St Mungo’s backed by Homes for All

UNITE article about St Mungo’s strike April / May 2023

Homes for All were pleased to welcome Zak, a St Mungo’s worker, to our national organising meeting on Saturday 15 April to tell us of their forthcoming strike.

Zak is a member of Unite and an outreach worker who along with around 600 other members voted overwhelmingly to reject a one off pay offer of £600 and following an imposed pay increase of 1.7% in 2021.

Like many Public Sector workers, Zak and his colleagues worked throughout Covid providing support and care to an often ignored section of society by the state. He spoke of the impact of homelessness on the client group they work with, but also how the cost of living crisis and lack of housing is now affecting his colleagues. As directors’ wages go up, front-line staff face financial hardship and increasing workloads whilst trying to provide a quality of service that their clients deserve.

Zak said the wave of strikes across the UK has given confidence to St Mungo’s workers and that they voted for the maximum strike days of 4 weeks. He talked about the importance of linking up with organisations like Homes for All. We sent solidarity greetings to the strikers and will encourage members to join the picket line.

Strike dates are 24 April to 21 May 2023

UNITE news article about the strike: https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2023/april/unite-blames-astonishing-management-indifference-for-a-month-long-strike-at-st-mungo-s/

H4A backs housing rebellion at THE BIG ONE, 21 – 24 April!

Housing Rebellion protest 14 March 2023

After the successful round of protests on 14 March Housing Rebellion, led by Refurbish Don’t Demolish, will make its voice heard at the Extinction Rebellion days of protest 21 to 24 April. The XR BIG ONE is four days of mass protest in London focusing on climate justice.

Homes for All has agreed to be a part of it, and send a speaker. We urge all our supporters to attend with their banners, placards and noise!

Radical Housing Network, which is helping to co-ordinate the housing protests said

“Reducing the environmental impact of buildings and construction, while also dealing with the housing crisis, is crucially about addressing the glaring inequality in access to land and housing. Why are some people allowed to own multiple energy-guzzling homes while others are forced to live in overcrowded, or cold, damp and overpriced housing? Why is social housing being demolished to make way for luxury new developments when we know that retrofitting and installing renewable energy would not just be more sustainable for the environment but would also safeguard truly affordable social housing for the next generation? Protesters will be discussing the problems, the solutions and how we work together to get results.”

The protests will take place at the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) on Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF

There will be a Housing Rebellion stall at the DLUHC showcasing information from all the various housing campaigns on Friday 21 April from 10am to 6pm and again on Monday the 24 April from 10am to 5pm.

On Friday 21 April at 1pm there will be a street theatre performance about a retrofit house.

On Monday 24 April at 4pm there will be a Housing Rally at Marsham Street before joining thousands of other campaigners to surround parliament at 5pm. A range of speakers will outline the key demands for housing and climate justice, including resident campaigners fighting for refurbishment and against demolition of their homes, architects pushing for sustainable buildings, and politicians who are supporting ‘retrofit first’ and truly affordable housing policies.

Find out more: https://www.radicalhousingnetwork.uk/home/housingthebigone

‘I’ve always felt these spaces were ours’: disability activism and austerity capitalism

DPAC outside Rishi Sunak’s office when he was chancellor: we will not be silent. October 2021. Photo by Paula Peters.

‘I’ve always felt these spaces were ours’ is an article on DPAC’s (Disabled People Against Cuts) activism published in the radical academic journal City: analysis of urban change, theory, action.

It is written by Debbie Humphry and based on interviews with DPAC members. It looks at how disability was created as an exclusionary category during industrial capitalism and continues today during contemporary austerity capitalism. It then looks in detail at the fantastic and inspiring activist strategies of the DPAC campaigners and argues that putting disability at the centre of anti-capitalist and urban struggles is crucial.

The article also has great photos by Paula Peters (DPAC).

Many thanks to DPAC for their time, the interviews and for reading and approving the article.

The article is available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13604813.2023.2172907

Join the housing rebellion, Tuesday 14 March!

We voted to support this protest and join environmental and housing campaigners to demand refurbishment not demolition on 14 March.

EXPOSED: Profiteering Developers (Home & Planet Wreckers)

12pm – 2pm Tuesday 14 March

Waterloo Millennium Green Baylis Road London SE1 7AA

Book to attend

The event is part of the build-up to the Extinction Rebellion ‘Big One’ a four day rolling protest in central London in April.

Campaigners in the group Housing Rebellion hope to make a few unannounced ‘site visits’ to some of the worst climate culprits in the property industry to say ‘Refurbish Don’t Demolish’; ‘Create low-energy, low-cost, warm, dry homes for all’; ‘Provide housing for people and planet not profit’.

This is a welcome unification of demands to stop the climate emergency and demands to ensure homes for people not profit. This is something Homes for All and our supporting organisations have paid more attention to in recent years including our involvement with Yes to Fair Redevelopment, the Campaign Against Empty Homes and other local campaigns against demolition and gentrification. It points to the need for a system-wide challenge to the way society is organised, depriving people of decent homes and a livable planet.