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Take to the streets! National Housing Demonstration 18 April

Homes for All is backing the protest in Central London on Saturday 18 April.

Over 50 trade unions, tenants’ groups and politicians have backed the demo demanding urgent rent controls and a new generation of accessible council homes. We are also fighting for a planning system that delivers for local communities and the environment not developer profit, and safe, secure homes so the Grenfell disaster can never happen again.

Asking rents for private tenants have risen by 44 per cent since the pandemic, while social rents and service charges continue to climb. About one in three renters now struggles to afford essentials like food and heating, and 330,000 households are currently facing homelessness.

“Politicians have forgotten the housing crisis, but people haven’t. Housing is right at the heart of the real struggles faced by so many communities around the UK. Join this demo to remind them that we need genuine answers – not just more measures to boost private profits or scapegoating immigrants.” Peter Apps, Author and Journalist

Martin Wicks of Defend Council Housing said: “The government’s strategy of planning liberalisation and reliance on the large volume private builders is doomed to fail. Social rent council housing is the key to resolving the housing crisis.”

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, who is supporting the action, said: “We must continue to campaign for a mass social housing programme and for private rent controls. More than 250,000 people are homeless in the UK, which is a national scandal. Housing should be a right for everyone – let’s reclaim housing as a public good for everyone.”

PDF leaflet

Housing Demo Leaflet (2)Download

Morning Start article: https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-and-campaigners-unite-national-housing-demonstration-over-soaring-costs

Keep up to date with preparations!

National Housing Demonstration website: https://www.housingdemo.org/

Homes 4 All Insta https://www.instagram.com/homes4alluk/

Homes 4 All Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Homes4AllUK

Homes 4 All X https://x.com/homes4alluk

To join the Planning Bloc on the demonstration, contact SHAPE

SHAPE Coalition Insta: https://www.instagram.com/shapecoalition/

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No to 10 Years of Above Inflation Rent Increases – Call out to groups and organisations

Paul Burnham, Haringey Defend Council Housing and Martin Wicks, Labour Campaign for Council Housing are seeking support for their statement / petition.

“Rent convergence” is being presented like it’s a done deal. It means massive rent increases for those in social rented and council housing, and higher benefit bills for the government. We must oppose it.

STATEMENT

We are asking tenants organisations and housing campaigns to support the statement which opposes ‘social rent convergence’ and 10 years of CPI+1% rent increases, for council and housing association tenants.

As the statement says this will impoverish already poor tenants who do not have all their rent covered by housing benefit. We will need to campaign for these policies to be overturned. Making tenants pay for the under-funding of council housing revenue accounts, and the indebtedness and commercialisation of housing associations, is a substitute for adequate central government funding. These increases are guaranteed to drive up rent arrears.

The government’s own impact assessment says that a £2 a week convergence payment will cost the Exchequer £4 billion in increased benefit payments. That makes no sense.

We are looking at the possibility of a meeting on this theme, in the House of Commons in November. In October we will know what the September inflation figure is, which will determine next April’s maximum rent increase.

If you support this statement, please add your organisation’s name to the statement/petition.

Paul Burnham, Haringey Defend Council Housing

Martin Wicks, Labour Campaign for Council Housing

Supporters also include (20/12/2025)

Jessica Field, independent researcher and author, Andrea Egan, UNISON Gen Sec elect, Fire Brigades Union, Greater Manchester Tenants Union, Haringey & Barnet UNITE Community, Haringey DCH, Brent West CLP, Haringey & Barnet UNITE Community, National Pensioners Convention, Gloucestershire, Avon & Somerset, Lindsey German, Convenor of Stop the War Coalition, Kevin Courtney, former joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, Diane Abbott, MP, Imran Hussein, MP, Rachael Maskell, MP, Brian Leishman, MP, Apsana Begum MP, John Moloney, Assistant General Secretary PCS in p/c, John McDonnell, MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Clive Lewis MP, Richard Burgon, MP, BAFAWU (Bakers Union), Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Labour Campaign for Council Housing, Streets Kitchen, UNITE Community National Housing Group, Somerset & North Devon UNITE Community, UNITE housing Workers Branch LE1111, Unite Community National Housing Group, Paula Barker, MP, Neil Duncan-Jordan, MP, Glyn Oliver, Branch secretary, Unite Community Southampton, Jackson Caines, Housing Campaigner, Harrow Law Centre, Housing Action Teeside, Kim Johnson MP, Jon Trickett MP, Brighton and Hove Housing Coalition, Chris Hinchliff MP

Sign the statement / petition

Labour Campaign for Council Housing

Haringey Defend Council Housing

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Homes for All backs Southwark Housing and Planning Emergency (SHAPE coalition)

Homes for All heard from the SHAPE Coalition on Saturday. They are planning a demonstration on 1 March and are seeking support from housing campaigners in the capital and further afield. SHAPE say the developments approved and planned in Southwark, and Peckham in particular, have major implications for the housing crisis elsewhere.

Berkeley Homes is proposing just 12% so-called affordable housing on the Aylesham Centre Peckham development – a proposal that includes 16 massive buildings, up to 20 storeys high in the centre of Peckham’s shopping street and beyond. There will be 877 new homes but only 77 will be “affordable”. If this development is approved, either by the Council or on appeal, this will send a message to developers everywhere – ‘Build whatever you like, your profits come first‘ This is a national issue and it requires a radical challenge to this government.

SHAPE Linktree

URGENT!!! Aylesham Community Action are calling a demo to oppose the Aylesham Centre development – 3pm, Saturday 8 February, Peckham Square.

We regard this offer as a deep insult to the people of Peckham and Southwark…we… seek to defeat this proposal and others, like Borough Triangle, which aim to increase the number of luxury flats and displace the local traders, much like the already approved development at Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre… We do not believe developer profits should be prioritised. That’s why our slogan is “Stop overdevelopment, homes for people, not for profit”.

From SHAPE Open Letter to Rye Lane Councillors, 13 January 2025

SHAPE OPEN LETTER to Rye Lane Cllrs 13 Jan 2025Download

This is a call-out to all housing groups, trade unionists and people who are affected by the lack of genuinely affordable housing. We have to fight for council housing. It is the only answer to the housing emergency, and we expect our political leaders to back us and get out of bed with the developers.

SHAPE’s demands

1. No to overdevelopment – Is it too high or too dense? NO!
2. 50% council housing on private land. 100% council housing on council land
3. No more fake consultations. We want genuine tenant, resident and local peoples’ involvement in the plans
4. Stop unsafe and poorly built development
5. Stop the demolition and sell-off of council housing – Refurbishment not demolition
6. Requisition or acquire empty homes
7. Protect and improve our estates, community facilities and town centres
8. Employ direct labour – give workers the power to challenge unsafe building work
9. Act on the Climate Emergency now. No unsustainable building, no loss of green space
10. Stop displacement of traders for unaffordable housing

If you agree, come to the demos, promote and support – and think about setting up a Housing and Planning Coalition in your own area.

Siobhan McCarthy, Aylesham Community Action said:

Private developers have come to Southwark and destroyed communities in order to make profit, without providing anywhere near enough social housing.  We are fighting this battle right now in Peckham.  

Tanya Murat, Southwark Defend Council Housing said

Emergency action is required. Instead of letting developers continue to get away with destroying council housing and building more and more luxury flats, Southwark Council should refuse unsustainable luxury developments, fight for council housing and protect our local communities.

SHAPE Linktree

Want to get involved? Contact Shape Coalition on shapesouthwark@gmail.com

SHAPE-A5-leaflet-2pp-#1-ONLINEDownload

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Dagenham Fire – Media Release

Action for Fire Safety Justice protesting at Skypool, Nine Elms, Vauxhall, 2021

Media Release 27/08/2024 – Immediate Release

We were shocked to hear of the fire that engulfed a block of flats in Dagenham, East London in the early hours of Monday morning, 26 August 2024. This must have been such a traumatising experience for all the residents and the surrounding community, with thoughts of Grenfell too frightening to consider. 

Thanks to the action of residents supporting each other and to the London Fire Brigade’s rapid response, an even worse outcome was averted. 

It is shocking that seven years after the Grenfell fire, non-compliant cladding was still in place, and that the blocks “had a number of fire safety issues”. 

Joanna from Action for Fire Safety Justice said:

“We were saddened but unfortunately not surprised to hear of the residential block fire in Dagenham. Anyone familiar with the building safety crisis knows that it’s another tragedy waiting to happen. The slow pace not only of remediation but also of regulation changes is absolutely unacceptable.”

The government needs to fund the immediate removal of combustible cladding across all housing, and draw up an emergency plan to address fire safety issues that put our lives at risk. 

The residents and community in Grenfell were neglected and abandoned by those in power. Lessons must be learned, and this time, urgent support and care must be provided for the people of Dagenham.

Homes for All UK

ENDS

Notes for Editors

Homes For All is a broad based coalition of housing campaigners and organisations, tenants and the labour and trade union movement. We are currently involved in a joint initiative with Defend Council Housing for council housing as the only solution to the housing crisis. 5 Point PLan for Council Housing

Please contact Home for All for further details:

Email:  infohfanew1@gmail.com

Mobile: 07904 53458

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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

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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

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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

Michael-Gove-speech-and-estate-demolitionsDownload