We want to make sure housing is a headline issue on the TUC’s demonstration on 18 June. The protest “We demand better” is focused on demands around workers wages, rights and benefits. The TUC’s demands are:
A real pay rise for every worker – and a real living wage for all
Respect and security for all workers – ban zero hours contracts, ban fire and rehire, decent sick pay now
End racism at work
Tax energy profits to pay our bills
Raise universal credit
Boost union bargaining rights now
People in private rented accommodation will be especially hard hit by the rising cost of living, but people living in council housing and leaseholders are also finding it difficult to make ends meet. As the government continues to make working class people pay for the economic crisis, we demand housing justice!
We are grateful for the support of UNITE Community, SHAC, Streets Kitchen, National Pensioners Convention, Defend Council Housing, Grenfell Community Campaigners, Campaign Against Empty Homes, Disabled People Against Cuts and others. We look forward to meeting up with everyone in these campaigns to form a housing bloc on the TUC demonstration. We will be helping the Campaign Against Empty Homes to distribute leaflets on the demo too.
Join us at 11am on 18 June at Portland Place to demand
Over 200 people registered for the summit on 12 March which heard from campaigners for tenants rights in planning, fire safety, fuel poverty and empty homes. Jeremy Corbyn MP closed the summit with a message of thanks for the organisers.
Campaigners pledged to fight for radical change to enable people to get the housing they need and be in control of their housing and local environment, rather than at the mercy of unaccountable landlords and property developers. They plan to meet again on 2nd April to take forward the action points from the workshops.
In the Housing, Poverty and Energy Futures workshop the participants backed refurbishment instead of demolition and called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies with insulation and energy for all.
Action points from the Planning / Development workshop included supporting local campaigns fighting over planning and development and campaigning on community control of planning and inclusive regeneration.
The Empty Homes workshop agreed to support further action on empty homes, including coming together for a strategy meeting. People who would like to take part in empty homes actions are welcome to attend the Campaign Against Empty Homes planning meeting on 2nd April at 12:30pm.
The Grenfell and Fire Safety Action workshop pledged to support the Grenfell impacted community in calling for prosecutions of those responsible for the fire in the building industry and politicians. They agreed to continue with solidarity action with residents in unsafe buildings, including support for further action by cladding campaigners and Action for Fire Safety Justice around the Building Safety Bill currently going through parliament.
Campaigners in the Council Housing, Housing Associations, supply, rents and service charges workshop thought that it was important to “continue working together to build a programme which has specific demands, create a peoples inquiry into housing, a future event on fighting back and clarify what we want to do using a trade union type strategy.”
The summit recording has been edited into 4 shorts and these videos can be downloaded here:https://we.tl/t-8nYWH6aegH: Opening Plenary with: Kevin Courtney; Bell Ribeiro-Addy; Emma Dent Coad; Ben Clay; Jennifer Shango Lunch sessions:Jon Richards, Head of Unison local govt, Recorded message from Ken Loach, Film maker + 2 short films by Melissa Herman and Bunny Schendler made with young people and parents from campaigning groups in Westminster. And finally Dr D’Adda an activist from Barcelona Workshop Report backs Closing Plenary with: Kwajo Tweneboa; John McDonnell; Nikki Saunders; Gyekye Tanoh; Joe Delaney; Sian Berry; Jeremy Corbyn
The removal of support measures for those impacted by the pandemic, the spike in living costs, including food and fuel, along with the threat of rent and service charge hikes, all mean the housing crisis is continuing to damage health, livelihoods, families and communities.
The aim of the summit is to build strong networked national housing campaigns for the coming year by bringing together local groups, Trade Unionists, MPs and supporters from around the UK to share information and create coordinated solidarities and strategies.
Workshop-based to generate ideas for how we can come together to fight for the secure, genuinely affordable and council homes that people need.
Speakers include
Jeremy Corbyn MP
John McDonnell MP
Kevin Courtney National Education Union
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Matt Wrack Fire Brigades Union
Kwajo Tweneboa Tenant Activist
Sian Berry AM GLA
and tenant and resident campaigners from across the country…
Please see details of forthcoming events in London below – if you are able to attend please take along your banner & join us on the day.
March to Southwark Council’s Assembly Wednesday 24 November 2021
Assemble: 6pm at Vauban Carpark, Alscot Road, Opposite Spa Gardens SE1 3GG (Bus 1 and 78) March to Tooley Street for a rally outside Council Assembly: 6:30pm @160 Tooley Street, SE1 2QH
Tuesday 7th December, 2021 7pm – ACTION FOR FIRE SAFETY JUSTICE UPDATE: HOW WE BEAT BELLWAY & HOW TO KEEP GOING? Join us as we share the campaigning tactics that forced Bellway to pay full remediation costs for our blocks. Hear from six Fire Safety Justice campaigners and join us in an open discussion as we reflect on successes and challenges in 2021 and decide together, where do we go from here?
Southend: A Great day action on empty homes in Southend National day of action by Action on Empty Homes & Homes for all .The Southend action organised By Essex Unite Community Branch .Attended by Essex Unite community, Acorn renters Union,Harlow And District trade Union Council. Basildon & Thurock Trades Union Council ,Southend Trades Union Council. CWU Rep. Southend Labour Party Members. 100s Signed petition to Southend Esasr/West MPs to End Homelessness & Build Council Homes.
Islington: On Saturday, six Islington Councillors, together with Islington residents and activists from Islington Homes for All, Islington Housing Action, Action on Empty Homes and Street Storage (for homeless people) gathered outside the 28 empty ex-warders’ flats belonging to the Ministry of Justice behind Pentonville Prison, left empty for years. They were protesting against the continued refusal by the Ministry of Justice to honour the agreement made in 2019 with Islington Council for the flats to be leased to house homeless and overcrowded families in a borough with over 14,000 households on the housing waiting list. Councillor Diarmaid Ward, Islington Council’s Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Housing emphasised the borough’s urgent need for these family-sized flats in the context of the present government clear disregard for people’s welfare in its pursuit to make money.
South London: Southwark, Aylesbury Estate. Up to 30 people protested at the Aylesbury Estate where the regeneration means the demolition of over 2,000 council homes. Over 600 council homes stand empty, waiting to be demolished. Southwark Council has been putting temporary tenants in these empty homes, and is subsidising developer Notting Hill Genesis to provide council homes in replacement of those that are demolished. We demand that NHG is removed and the estate is refurbished.
Westminster – Waiting for Report
E17 Against Evictions (Walthamstow) – Waiting for Report
Join us for our next national day of local protests, to demand that the Government make Developers pay to fix the Fire Safety Crisis!Leaseholders and tenants are trapped in unsafe homes, facing bankruptcy and eviction because our homes weren’t built to be safe.
Meanwhile, developers get off scot free and continue to make huge profits.Join us as we fight for our rights and demand change. Bring your friends, family and neighbours and let’s make a noise!
Saturday 30 October 2021, 11:30am – 12:30pm Building Safety Crisis Day of Action Online Rally https://www.facebook.com/events/680536556257607 We demand that the Government makes Developers pay! The costs to fix fire safety issues should not fall on tenants or leaseholders. Join Action for Fire Safety Justice and supporters for a rally featuring outside broadcasts from protests as part of the national day of action.
Speakers include:
Chloe Waite, Action for Fire Safety Justice
Tanya Murat, Homes For All
Karim Mussilhy, Grenfell United
Wilf Sullivan, TUC
Jenni Garratt, End Our Cladding Scandal
Chair, Moyra Samuels, Grenfell Campaigner
Protests to be featured at the online rally include:
⁕ London City Hall ⁕ Abbey Quays Barking ⁕ Upton Park ⁕ Ipswich Waterfront ⁕ Milton Keynes ⁕ Bristol City Hall ⁕ Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights
Hosted by Will McMahon Action on Empty Homes & Morag Gillie Homes for All
Hi Everyone!
Huge thanks to everyone for getting involved & making Saturday 9 October a day of action and of support in demanding that empty homes are brought back into use.
Campaign Against Empty Homes (CAEH) has received widespread support as shown by the fantastic line up of speakers & groups taking action in their local areas.
So please join the Campaign Against Empty Homes Day of Action – Online rally with national speakers (if you’re out on the streets you will be able to watch later).
Saturday 9th October 11am – 12 noon – join the rally here:
Southwark: Campaign Against Empty Homes: Repopulate the Aylesbury Estate! Fill Empty Council Homes, 10:45am, Saturday 9th October, Outside Thurlow Lodge, 1 Thurlow Street, SE17 2US Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/405314640978545/
Islington Homes for All Empty Homes Day of Action at Pentonville Prison. Saturday 9th October. Meet at the Breakout Café on Caledonian Road at 10:45 to go to Pentonville Prison Empty Flats on Roman Way for 11am. Twitter: https://twitter.com/home
Radical Housing Network/Action on Empty Homes Westminster, Millbank Tower, Meet at: Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP. Meet at 11am – 12pm on Sat 9th October 2021 here: https://fb.me/e/1Gnrtr8TS
The Fossets for the People Empty home Re Wrong Housing and planning. Organised By firstly By Essex Unite Community Branch. Supported By Harlow And District Trades Council. Southend. Meet: Southend High Street under the Railway Bridge close to Greggs.
Hammersmith Kensington Fulham and Chelsea Housing Action Group. Meet at 1 Kensington Rd, W8 5NX at 10.45 am. Protest outside the under-occupied luxury flats, formally the De Vere Hotel. https://www.facebook.com/events/181023150818138/
E17 Against Evictions (Walthamstow) Meet at 16-18 Orford Road, E17 9LN at 11am to 1pm. Protest outside two long-term empty homes owed by Waltham Forest council.
Please do all you can to share these links and if you can’t make it to the Rally, please download a poster and do a selfie we can show on the day.
Please send selfies to Will at Action on Empty Homes – 07968 950223 – Will.McMahon@emptyhomes.com Morag Gillie at Homes for All – morag.gillie@sky.com
Agenda for HfA Meeting 1. Update on CAEH 2. Report backs from: 3. LP Conference 4. Cladding Day of Action 5. Grenfell 6. AOB Agenda for CAEH 1. Planning local actions and Broadcasts 2. Distribution of the leaflet and final poster 3. Using social media to generate support for the day 4. Final sponsors for the Day of Action 5. Rally speakers and timings. 5.AOB
October 9th 2021, 11am Day of Action – We are in a climate, health and housing emergency!
We have decided to bring together all the organisations that took part in our first successful Day of Action in April 2021 and draw more local and national organisations into a national coalition called ‘Campaign Against Empty Homes’. Whether it is a local community group or a national organisation, we want everyone on board for 9 October, who wants empty homes to be brought back into use.
Unite have kindly donated some money so we can produce publicity and get the message out. We have lots of leaflets you can use to promote the day of action., and you can give out the same leaflets on the day of action itself. Scroll down to see a pdf of the leaflet. Our main partners, Action on Empty Homes are working hard with us to plan for the day. We will be doing a press launch very soon.
We will be having an online rally on YouTube and Facebook on 9th October, just like we did on 17th April, and we are inviting you to live stream your local protest into the rally.
We are calling the 9th October Day of Action for four reasons:
1) Over 100,000 families are living in Temporary Accommodation while over half a million homes have no permanent resident.
2) The wrong kind of housing is being built across the country – they are unaffordable to anyone on an average income to either rent or buy. These new builds are also being sold off-plan and ending up as Airbnb short lets, second homes or buy to leave empty wealth investments with no permanent residents.
3) Communities are being broken up as council estates that could be refurbished are being left to decline, to be replaced by yet more unaffordable new build.
4) The Climate emergency demands refurbishment, not demolition. Retrofitting 270,000 long term empty homes and council estates can help solve the climate crisis.
We will hold street actions highlighting all of these issues and hold a national rally calling for empty homes to be used by those living in temporary and overcrowded accommodation and to meet the climate emergency.
The Day of Action is also to raise public awareness of the rising number of long-term empty homes and homes without a permanent resident in England. Government and market data show there are around:
*270,000 long-term empty homes *260,000 second-homes with no permanent resident *120,000 Airbnb type short-lets (London Councils estimate there are over 70,000 short-lets in London alone) We also want a national register of landlords and beneficial owners and much tighter regulation of Airbnb.
If you want to call a street protest to be part of the day of action on 9th October, please let us know. We can live stream your protest into an online rally.
Local street protests will be POSTED HERE
Southwark: Campaign Against Empty Homes: Repopulate the Aylesbury Estate! Fill Empty Council Homes, 10:45am, Saturday 9th October, Outside Thurlow Lodge, 1 Thurlow Street, SE17 2US Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/405314640978545/
2. Empty Homes Day of Action at Pentonville Prison. Islington Homes for All – Saturday 9th October Meet at the Breakout Café on Caledonian Road at 10:45 to go to Pentonville Prison Empty Flats on Roman Way for 11am. Twitter: https://twitter.com/home
3.
Everything you need to plan a street protest and live stream it is here
Nine Ems protest 21 August 2021. Photo (and fantastic speech!) by Reece Lipman
The Nine Elms protest made the BBC News website and served to highlight the building safety crisis and and the wider housing crisis. Insurmountable cladding bills, estate managers ignoring broken fire alarms, construction defects, “affordable” housing residents being denied access to basic facilities – All of the companies present in one way or another in Nine Elms have been notorious for this. Protesters were joined by Wandsworth Housing Action and local Wandsworth Labour Councillor Maurice McLeod as well as Tony O’Brien from Hazards. Great to see you there! Action on Fire Safety Justice is a force to be reckoned with!
Newsnight covered the fire safety issue in full, it took up the WHOLE programme, and gave a platform to leaseholders facing life changing bills.
Opening Plenary with: Kevin Courtney; Bell Ribeiro-Addy; Emma Dent Coad; Ben Clay; Jennifer Shango
