Posted on by

Homes for All hosted campaigners to discuss “housing and planning revolution”

Housing and planning campaigners headed to the culture tent at Marxism 2025 on Sunday to discuss ‘why we need a housing and planning revolution’.

Over 80 people attended, with contributions from Just Space, Living Rent Scotland and ACORN. Another participant in the meeting raised how impressed they were with how H4A raised broader political issues in their campaigns such as anti-racism and asked for advice on how to get their campaign to do the same.

The meeting, hosted by Morag Gillie from Homes For All was an opportunity to consider the kind of change we need, and how to fight for it. Morag said “There were too many people waiting to speak and as usual we ran out of time.”
After the meeting people formed two long queues for getting involved and taking away leaflets. 14 people signed up to the H4A WhatsApp group and we ran out of leaflets on both tables!

Destructive

Eileen Conn from Peckham Vision spoke about her personal story as a grassroots campaigner for 50 years with much of it about neighbourhood planning issues. She gave a snapshot of the current 5-year campaign against Berkeley’s plans for the overdevelopment of the Aylesham site in Rye Lane which locals view as destructive to Peckham as a place, to the town centre and its diverse vibrant local economy.

“This phenomenon is happening all over London and other places across the country and why we need to bring grassroots housing campaigners together with planning campaigners. This is to mobilise local people everywhere onto the streets for a total change in the national housing policies and planning policies” Eileen Conn, Peckham Vision

Struggles

Paul Burnham from Defend Council Housing spoke about UK housing policy since 1914, pointing out how struggles from below had driven high priority council house building campaigns in the past. There had also been other successes from campaigning over a long series of issues and struggles. Paul pointed out that Angela Rayner’s latest promise of £39 billion of social and affordable housebuilding, including 180,000 social rent homes over ten years, must be examined alongside the government’s tenure-blind target for 1.5 million new homes over five years.

“When all these schemes are up and running, there would be 300,000 new homes a year, of which 18,000, that is, only 6%, would be at social rent. That is not going to cut it.” Paul Burnham, Defend Council Housing

Developers

Tanya Murat from SHAPE Coalition said solving the housing emergency would mean a new generation of council housing – for all, wherever you were born. She outlined the need to struggle on many fronts. We have to call for the requisitioning of empty homes; we must break the power of landlords and fight for a nationally enforced system of rent control now. The government must end the building safety scandal, and we need Justice for Grenfell. We have to stand up to developers.We must demand – Refurbish don’t demolish. We have to support campaigners who are fighting to stop their councils demolishing structurally sound housing.

“Expecting developers to solve the housing emergency is like expecting fossil fuel companies to solve the climate emergency” Tanya Murat, SHAPE (Southwark Housing and Planning Emergency)

Posted on by

Why we need a housing and planning revolution

Homes for All is hosting a housing and planning meeting at Marxism Festival 2025.

When? 2pm, Sunday 6 July

Where? Marxism Festival, Culture Tent, Shoreditch, London

With Morag Gillie (Chair), Homes4All and speakers

Eileen Conn, Peckham Vision and community planning campaigner

Tanya Murat, Homes4All and SHAPE Coalition

Paul Burnham, Defend Council Housing

The panel will discuss the political decisions that led to the transformation of housing provision and planning policy, how we build a grassroots coalition and why we need to fight for council housing and overturn the current developer-led system.

Marxism Festival is happening between Thursday 3 July and Sunday 6 July.

Book tickets here

Posted on by

Loud and lively Housing and Planning Bloc on the Peoples Assembly demonstration!

The Homes for All Housing and Planning Bloc on the Peoples Assembly demo against austerity was a real pleasure to support.

Homes for All, supported by Defend Council Housing, SHAPE, SHAC and many others had fantastic Housing and Planning Bloc, and we even got to speak on the platform to promote the movement’s demands for council housing and a challenge to the rule of developers. We called for a revolution in housing and planning.
High energy all the way!
More than 60 housing and planning campaigners joined us. We brought the noise all the way from Portland Place to Whitehall.

More pics here INSTA

Posted on by

Join the Housing and Planning bloc on the Peoples Assembly demo, 7 June

We have a Housing and Planning bloc on the People’s Assembly demo, 7 June.

We are seeking support both from housing campaigns, and planning campaigns. We know the housing emergency will not be solved without a massive overhaul in planning policy. Without doubt the national and local planning regime has turned into a developers’ charter, putting ‘viability’ (read ‘developer profit’) at the centre, and reducing the role of council housing to a bit part. This has to change if we are to get the homes people desperately need.

Of course the only solution to the housing emergency is for the government to build or acquire council housing on a mass scale, and that requires proper funding. We want anyone who agrees with us to join us on 7 June!

  • Are you a planner?
  • Are you a housing officer?
  • Are you active in the planning world?
  • Are you part of the housing movement?

The Homes 4 All Housing and planning bloc is for you! Get in touch if you want to help build it! If you want your logo on the graphic, please email Homes for All.

Posted on by

SHAPE calls for Peckham Takeover Saturday 31 May

The excitement was building as SHAPE supporters hit the streets on Saturday. 11 supporters were mass leafleting and the mood was high to to stop the Berkeley Homes development.

SHAPE also met up with Peter Apps this week, author of  “Show Me the Bodies“, to talk about the campaign and what the proposed development means for Peckham. The Berkeley Aylesham Centre proposal, at 12% so-called affordable housing, was heading for refusal at planning committee. That’s why the developer decided to take its chances with the Planning Inspector instead. A big F.U. to the local Councillors and local people. Let’s keep up the pressure, on the council the developer and the government!

📣📣 It’s the PEOPLE vs The DEVELOPERS🤡🤡
✊️✊️ Peckham Takeover – Saturday 31 May, 1pm @ Peckham Square

Route and timings
Peckham Takeover, 31 May 2025
⭕Circular route around Peckham
📍 1pm Assemble Peckham Square
⏱ 3.30pm Arrive back Peckham Square
End around 4:15pm

♿ Accessible March
Anybody who wants to participate but maybe feels a long walk will be difficult, can join the disability group: 
Rye Lane Chapel, SE15 5EX 
⏱ 2.30pm  
The main march will be passing here at around 2:45pm to 3:15pm

SHAPE demands
❌STOP overdevelopment
✅ 50% Council housing on private land
✅ 100% Council housing on council land
Homes for people, not for profit
Council homes not luxury flats

Posted on by

Call out to stop harmful development in South London

Homes for All joined the SHAPE demonstration on 1 March 2025

Public meeting in Peckham on 15 May calls for developments with 50% council housing

Campaigners in Southwark are calling on the housing movement to support their public meeting on 15 May and their ‘Peckham Takeover on 31 May.

This follows their 600-strong demonstration in March against overdevelopment and for council housing. Now SHAPE are pledged to take over the centre of Peckham at the end of May.

Developer Berkeley Homes has put in an appeal to the Planning Inspector. Their Aylesham Centre proposal was waiting for local planning approval, but the appeal (on the grounds of ‘non-determination’) means the proposal will be decided by the Secretary of State or the Planning Inspector, rather than the local planning committee.

Campaigners were demanding refusal from the committee, which will still take place in June. Southwark Housing and Planning Emergency (SHAPE) was disappointed that local people have been bypassed by the developer and has pledged to fight on. Southwark Defend Council Housing described the developer’s move as “Arrogant, anti-democratic and aggressive.”

Arrogant, anti-democratic and aggressive

Southwark DCH

The public meeting will hear from Zoe Garbett Green AM, Andreea Vasilcin, Aylesham Community Action, Neil Tasker, Southwark UNITE and Carmen and Michael, SE16 No Price on Culture with Councillor David Parton, Rye Lane Ward.

All three Labour Councillors in the ward affected by the scheme have urged residents to object to it, and Peckham MP Miatta Fahnbulleh stated she would stand with the community against the proposal if the amount of affordable housing remained at 12%.

The proposal by Berkeley Homes promises just 12% ‘affordable’ housing in a development that residents say is not meant for them. Sixteen tall towers, up to 20 storeys high, with little consideration for the heritage of the area, local independent traders or the environment.

SHAPE Public Meeting

Thursday 15 May, 7pm 

Rye Lane Chapel, 59A, Rye Lane, SE15 5EX

It’s The People vs The Developers! Peckham takeover!

Saturday 31 May, Assemble 1pm

Peckham Square SE15 5RS

For a demo through Peckham ending at Peckham Square for a happening with speeches and entertainment

SHAPE said:

‘We are living through a housing emergency.  Despite huge developments across the borough, we have more people on the council housing waiting list than we had twenty years ago. Berkeley Homes are only offering an insulting 12% ‘affordable’ housing on the new Aylesham Centre – that’s just 77 ‘affordable’ homes out of nearly nine hundred and they might not even be social rent!’

We are also losing valuable small businesses and cultural amenities.  We have already seen the damage done to independent traders at the Elephant and Castle and the Borough Triangle scheme puts the future of the traders at Mercato market into doubt.  PlushSE16 was a great cultural and social hub in Rotherhithe, but it’s been lost too, to make way for a 48-storey tower with only 25% social rented homes.’

It’s time to end developments which take so much from us, and don’t even give us homes we can afford to live in.’

Siobhan McCarthy, Aylesham Community Action (ACA), said

‘The displacement of local communities and traders, huge mega developments placed in an area with no thought towards what exists already, creating a them and us feel to the community – this is all too high a price to pay (especially in Peckham with the planned Aylesham development). And for what? A disgustingly low amount of social housing, and ‘affordable housing’, and huge amount of developer profit.  We need to demand change and now.’

Tanya Murat, Southwark Defend Council Housing (SDCH), said

‘Now is the time for a different kind of housing policy. The market cannot deliver the homes we need, only council housing can do that. We have to send a message to this government, and to Southwark Council, that we won’t accept any more crumbs off the table. Stop submitting to the rule of developers. Their profits are not more important than people’s homes’.

Jerry Flynn, 35% Campaign, said:

‘The Aylesham is right at the heart of Peckham and its redevelopment will shape the whole area for decades to come. Southwark Council must make it clear to Berkeley Homes that its derisory 12% so called affordable housing offer will be rejected. Southwark has a target of 50% affordable housing and that is what should from Berkeley Homes. This should be all council housing if we are ever to reduce our huge council housing waiting list.’

SHAPE’s demands

SHAPE’s main demands are an end to overdevelopment and more council housing – 50% for developments on private land and 100% on council land.  It also wants an end to estate demolition and the sale of council homes and an end to the displacement of local traders for developments of unaffordable housing.

SHAPE (Southwark Housing And Planning Emergency) is an umbrella group of housing campaigns and activists from across Southwark.  SHAPE is supported by Southwark Defend Council Housing, Aylesham Community Action, Save Borough Triangle, Peckham Vision, Latin Elephant, Up the Elephant, 35% Campaign, Yes to Fair Redevelopment, Southwark Notes , Fight for Aylesbury, PlushSE16 No Price on Culture, Glengall Wharf Garden, Southwark TUC, Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth and Southwark Group of Tenants Organisation, Southwark GMB, Southwark UNITE, PCS SELLS Branch.

Posted on by

Spanish housing movement forces rent control, beats back racist housing policy, stops evictions

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: Tarek-at-H4A-meeting-26-April-2025.png

Homes for All heard from Tarek Cheriha Dkik, a housing and anti-racist activist speaking from Girona, northeast Catalonia.

The housing rights movement is led by the Tenants’ Union (Sindicat de Llogateres i Llogaters). The Union calls for protecting renters and fighting for the de-commodification of housing including rent control, increasing public housing stock, and stopping evictions. 
The main demands of the movement in a massive demo in November were:

  • 50% reduction in rental prices
  • indefinite rental contracts 
  • recovery of vacant and tourist-use homes for residential use
  • a ban on real estate speculation.

Then on 5 April 5 2025, there was another demo in over 40 cities across Spain, including Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Málaga, and others. Both Madrid and Barcelona saw over 100,000 protesters.

In a stunning victory, left-wing parties in the parliament of Catalonia responded to the massive movement by reaching an agreement to regulate seasonal and room rents, establish a sanctioning regime for housing violations, and build 50,000 rent controlled housing units.

Activists from the city of Salt’s anti-racist network formed a committee to identify and stop migrant families being evicted from their homes, which later became the Salt Housing Union. They also successfully lobbied to remove a discriminatory condition excluding migrants from public housing, and exposed the racism in the private rental market.

It is clear that a huge movement can challenge the political business as usual, and demands which seemed impossible before can take on a life of their own.

Thank you to Tarek for taking the time to explain how to fight for people and housing!


YouTube Video for Tarek’s presentation (including summary of his comments)

Posted on by

Housing campaigners take the fight to Labour, link up the struggles – stop cuts to disabled people’s benefits now!

homes for all demo banners

Homes for All wishes to thank everyone who joined the housing lobby on Wednesday outside parliament.

Speakers representing 13 housing & planning campaigns and also Fuel Poverty Action, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) and Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) spoke in anger about the scale of the housing and planning emergency and the urgency to keep fighting – demanding radical solutions to address decades of neglect.

The Labour Party plan for “£2 billion new investment to support biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation” will not.

But the day was rightfully DPAC’s with disabled people facing inhumane cuts to benefits and their mass demo from Downing St to the rally was just brilliant.

          View this post on Instagram                      

A post shared by Homes 4 All UK (@homes4alluk)

Posted on by

Call out to the housing movement – Lobby parliament 26 March

📢 Homes for People Not for Profit 📢

Come and join housing and other campaigners 26 March, from 11am to the lobby of parliament as Rachel Reeves makes the government’s financial statement.

Homes 4 All protest outside parliament
Opposite Old Palace Yard
11am, Wednesday 26 March

We are demanding urgent action by the government to recognise the nature and scale of the housing emergency.

After 14 years of disastrous housing policies and increasing poverty, all indications are that we will see no fundamental changes to the housing regime unless we step up the pressure.

🚩 Bring your banners and placards, and make some noise!

MAP HERE

Homes 4 All lobby of parliament 26 March A5 2ppDownload