Peter Apps will be signing books at Bookmarks Bookshop on 23 May
Come and join Peter Apps, Deputy Editor of Inside Housing as he discusses his acclaimed book
Peter Apps reported on fire safety before Grenfell and afterwards. He helped to unpick the lie that flammable cladding had been banned, and so the government had a case to answer about why such materials were on the tower.
Peter reported on the harrowing evidence presented at the public inquiry, detailing every shift and evasion of civil servants and by the manufacturers about how the disaster was allowed to happen.
The chapters in Peter’s book alternate between a sympathetic account of the experience of those inside the tower who were exposed to the horrors of the fire, combined with a detailed examination of how our housing, economic and political systems facilitated the tragedy.
The book is essential reading for all those who are campaigning for justice for the 72 people who died, and to ensure that this never happens again.
Peter will be speaking in person at Bookmarks Bookshop and the event will also be live streamed.
Tuesday 23 May, 6:30pm at Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3QE
Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) is campaigning to prevent social rent rises of around 10.4% next April. Service charges are uncapped and could rise by any amount. There should be no rent or service charge rises in a cost-of-living crisis.
Please Sign the SHAC Pledge for non-payment of rent or service charge increases. You can view the Pledge here.
Rents for council and housing association tenants are set to rise by 11% or more in April 2023. This would be an intolerable further burden for four million tenant households already facing massive bills for food, energy and other necessities.
Wednesday, 14 SEPTEMBER 2022 AT 12:00
Cost of living crisis: Time to freeze council and housing association rents for four million
Department of Levelling Up, 2 Marsham St, London SW1P 4DF
Defend Council Housing demands: 1. Government action to freeze rents and service charges, and compensate Council Housing Revenue Accounts for this essential freeze in the pending rent rise. 2. Council landlords agree now to freeze rents for April 2023, pause all eviction proceedings for rent arrears, and join us to press for Government action. 3. All Councils to contact housing associations operating locally, urging them to likewise freeze rents and halt evictions for rent arrears. We recognise that these issues will also affect private renters and leaseholders. We will work with tenant groups and campaigners of all tenures to win a rent freeze, stop evictions, protect tenants from profiteering private landlords and leaseholders from increasing service charges.
There should be no rent or service charge rises in a cost-of-living crisis. Please sign the SHAC Pledge for non-payment of rent or service charge increases. You can view the Pledgehere. And find out more information on the Website https://shaction.org/
UPDATE: Tenants will be at the Department of Levelling Up on Wed 14 September 12 noon. DCH and SHAC will present our joint letter. Join us if you can, because the rents crisis hasn’t paused. There will be a second protest on Thursday 6 October, when inflation figures are released, when we expect more speakers, MPs and media to be in attendance.
Cost of living crisis: Time to freeze council and housing association rents for four million tenants.
Action on: Wednesday SEPTEMBER 14, 2022 AT 12 PM
At The Department of Levelling Up, 2 Marsham St, London SW1P 4DF
Islington Homes for All protest at Pentonville Prison 14 May 2022
Ongoing campaign to force Ministry of Justice to sell 28 empty flats as originally planned to Islington Council for families in housing need.
Islington Homes for All staged a protest on 14 May at Pentonville Prison. 28 flats have stood empty for years and the Ministry of Justice has reneged on its promise to sell them to Islington Council, choosing instead to make a deal with a developer who will pay more money and doubtless make them into luxury flats, rather than the council homes so desperately needed.
Islington Homes for All is part of a national Campaign Against Empty Homes which has mobilised housing campaigners and local residents to highlight the scandal of thousands of empty homes across the UK. At the same time thousands of people are forced to live in unaffordable, insecure and temporary accommodation.
Since Islington Council have declined the developers’ planning application Islington Homes for All are fighting for the MoJ to return to their original agreement and hand the 3 and 4 bedroom flats back to Islington Council.
You can help the campaign by signing and sharing the Change.org petition and by helping to build the next Campaign Against Empty Homes Day of Action in your area in October 2022 (Date to be confirmed)
UK Cladding Action Group call on campaigners to rally at Westminster when the Building Safety Bill goes back to the Commons
Five years after the Grenfell fire and we are no closer to a comprehensive solution to guarantee fire safety to all residents in affected blocks. And it still seems unclear exactly who will be funding remediation in many cases. This is despite the pledge developers have made to fund repairs in buildings over 11m high. This pledge is a product of the campaigning pressure of the Grenfell impacted community, leaseholder campaigns such as UK Cladding Action Group and Action for Fire Safety Justice and trade unions, particularly FBU. Homes for All has been proud to support them over the years. It’s no accident that this pledge comes just days before campaigners are due to protest again.
But whatever the Government says, and whatever Secretary of State for so-called levelling up Michael Gove wants people to believe, this pledge, and the proposed Building Safety Bill is yet another piecemeal solution for some people, at best. UKCAG explains what’s happening here. Bankruptcies and years of living in unsafe housing are set to continue for many.
This is why everyone needs to support the protest on Wednesday 20 April at 1pm in Westminster. It seems likely that following months of talks and lobbying with MPs and government ministers, the movement will have to return to the streets in a major way. This is needed to force the government to legislate to protect all leaseholders from costs and make all buildings safe. As Action for Fire Safety Justice has proved, a developer can be forced to take full responsibility for remediation if the campaign to make them do so is active enough and visible enough. We stand in solidarity with all those fighting back.
The Campaign Against Empty Homes Local Election Manifesto calls for Local Authorities to take action!
There are over 100,000 families living in Temporary Accommodation whilst over half a million homes lie empty as so-called ‘second homes’, Airbnb-type short lets, or simply have no permanent residents.
Meanwhile, the wrong type of housing is being built nationwide. Unaffordable to anyone on an average income to either rent or buy, from city centre towers to car-dependent suburbs, many of these newbuilds are sold to global investors via off-plan schemes, ending up as so-called ‘Buy to Leave’ wealth investments or Airbnbs and second homes, with no permanent residents.
Communities are being broken up as council estates that could be refurbished are being left to decline with many homes empty, only to be replaced by yet more unaffordable new builds, often financialised by private developers.
Campaign Against Empty Homes is organising a “Digital Day of Action” on Monday 25 April, 2022
Supporters of the campaign group will forward the manifesto to their council candidates and seek support. If you would like to take part in the Digital Day of Action and let the media know please download this press release.
25th April Digital Day of Action calls for candidates to end the empty homes scandal
Campaign calls for candidates to combat empty homes and stop developers building ‘The Wrong Housing’
As local elections approach the Campaign Against Empty Homes coalitioni which unites housing campaigners across political parties, homelessness and tenant organisations and trade unions call on supporters to seek local election candidate commitments to address the housing crisis.
25 April ‘Digital Day of Action’ will see supporters contact candidates to call for support of a Manifesto of demands that centre on growing numbers of empty homes and action to combat housing policy which leads to tens of thousands of new homes being sucked out of residential use as second homes and Airbnbs, as affordable options for those on average incomes decline to zero across the country.
Key Points:
Coalition members call on supporters and members of the public to ask local election candidates to directly address the housing crisis and support action to end the waste of hundreds of thousands of empty homes.
Long-term empty homes numbers have risen to nearly a quarter of a million and stand 20% higher than 5 years ago despite an intensifying housing crisisii.
Numbers of families in Temporary Accommodation continue to rise with 100,000iii placed in Temporary Accommodation by councils, increasing numbers housed in unsuitable accommodation distant from families and local support networks.
The Manifesto calls on candidates to support:
Funding local council work to bring empty homes back into use for those who need genuinely affordable, decent and permanent homes to live in.
Campaigning for national government action through investment and stronger powers to bring wasted homes back into use
Greater regulation of Airbnb to stop low-cost housing being sucked out of residential use.
Vacancy Taxes on homes not in residential use, to discourage second home purchases.
Local and national registers of residential property ownership and use.
Retrofit First model for social housing to prevent demolitions and help tackle the climate crisis.
Fair redevelopment to prioritise low-cost homes and council houses to meet demand – not corporate developments that break up local communities.
Will McMahon, Director of Action on Empty Homes, said “We support the Campaign Against Empty Homes Day of Action because it is time we had a frank conversation about vacancy levels. Over half a million homes are out of residential use long-term in England. Without change these homes won’t house anyone any time soon. We need to stop pretending that a quarter of a million second homes in England are really homes at all. We need to get wasted empty homes back into use for those 100,000 families who desperately need them. We must also stop building the wrong housing to end the housing crisis and instead force developers to address the falling numbers of social and genuinely affordable homes available to those in desperate housing need.”
Tanya Murat, Homes for All, said “We think the empty homes scandal should be a major election issue. No political party should be able to sweep this under the carpet any longer. There are over half a million empty or underused homes in the UK whilst every day developers continue building housing for profit not for people. Local government should play a role in challenging that – making sure every empty home is filled with people who need housing.”
Notes to Editors:
The Campaign Against Empty Homesis a cross-party coalition calling for action and involving community organisations, trade unions and homelessness projects, as well as members of many different political parties – it calls for everyone concerned about the intensifying housing crisis across the country will call on local politicians to adopt the policies in its Manifesto for the upcoming local elections.
List of Campaign Coalition, supporters: Action on Empty Homes, The Big Issue, Disabled People
Against Cuts, Fuel Poverty Action, The Green Party, Homes for All, Labour Homelessness Campaign,
Renters’ Rights London, Peace & Justice Project, People Before Profit, Radical Housing Network, Social Housing Action Campaign, Southwark Defend Council Housing, Streets Kitchen, Street Storage, Unite the Union London and Eastern Region, Unite Community London and Eastern Region, Yes to Fair Development.
Agenda for CAEH Notes of the Steering Group meeting Manifesto – design and use Airbnb meeting Meeting focused on the history of squatting and policies etc. Date of next HfA meeting AOB
Agenda for HfA Update on Summit 22 Report from DCH/Parliamentary Group What’s happening Locally – updates AOB
