The Cause and Effects of Housing Policy
A week out from the Land Aid Sleep out on 2nd March, we brought together 4 speakers to examine how it is that there are 122,000 people today facing homelessness – a 40% increase on five years ago and why we’re continuing to deliver enough homes.
A Historical Perspective
The data is clear that we have a housing market in crisis, and a public policy framework and resources which aren’t currently capable of meeting everyone’s housing needs. Over the period since Iceni’s inception in 2005 housing inequalities have grown: house prices have risen substantially relative to earnings, home ownership is falling amongst young and middle aged households; private rents are spiralling; and we have been failing to invest in the social housing sector.
But, as Hashi Mohamed explained, the roots date further back. Between the 1940s and 1960s housing policy fell under the remit of the Department of Health, as poor quality housing bred disease. Councils were delivering social housing in significant numbers. But since the introduction of the Right-to-Buy in 1980 we have been failing to build enough affordable homes to both replace those lost, and keep up with need.
The Crisis Today
The impacts today are stark: with 4 million households claiming housing benefit and a housing benefit bill of around £20 billion a year – partly lining the pockets of private landlords who have bought up ex-Council homes. 95,000 households across the County are living in insecure, temporary accommodation. But there are also hidden homeless, as Alice Lamb explained, including
those 16-25 who can’t afford the £935 per month it costs to rent a room in our Capital City, are sofa surfing and don’t know how to access help and support.
Given the scale of the challenge, Councils’ resources are severely stretched, and often aren’t able to provide the wrap-around support which some of our most vulnerable members of society need to get on.
This is where charities such as Land Aid, the property industry charity, and Off the Streets at a local level in Southend-on-Sea, alongside many others, are doing critical important work in supporting young and vulnerable people –not just through providing accommodation, but bringing together different skills and organisations to help people access training and employment opportunities, improve their mental health and regain their independence.
Joined up Solutions delivered in Partnership
In delivering the homes we need, we explored whether leadership from national government has now hit rock bottom. Intergenerational solidary is a component of sustainable development, but the system isn’t currently delivering it and, as Hashi Mohamed explained this is a failure of our politics.
With no ‘silver bullet’ solution, we need better leadership, nationally and locally. We need to work in partnership and join up our housing, health and wider social policy agendas. We need to be creative, including looking at the opportunities for the temporary use of buildings to provide accommodation for those most in need. But we also need to get involved, give young people a voice and shout much more strongly as a sector about the need for long-term investment.
