decent housing for all grass roots activist arranged a afternoon of demonstration over the the lack of housing within londons largest most populated borough of southwark The signs of the housing crisis are all around us, made even worse by the coronavirus pandemic. Evictions have gone up 207% since the ban on bailiff evictions ended; homelessness is at record levels; so is overcrowding. Rents have risen 13% and are continuing to go up.
Everyone should have the right to safe, decent, permanent and genuinely affordable housing – not the ‘affordable’ housing that is 80% of market rent, or a euphemism for shared ownership. But under our current capitalist system, homes have been turned into a commodity – something to make profits – instead of a basic human right. So council homes are being knocked down or sold off and not replaced. More and more people are being driven into the private sector, with unaffordable rents and less security.
Southwark Labour council has been one of London’s worst councils for selling off housing estates like the Heygate, Wooddene and the Aylesbury with the loss of thousands of council homes, which have been replaced almost entirely by housing for private rent or sale.
The council has more than 20,000 people on its housing waiting list – yet has promised only 11,000 new council homes will be built over the next 23 years. This is clearly inadequate. At the same time, having sold off council land it is trying to build the council homes it has promised on existing children’s playgrounds and other green spaces – rather than opening up the more than 6,000 empty homes in the borough to those who need them.
It is clear neither the government nor the council are willing or able to tackle the housing crisis that is causing misery for hundreds of thousands of people.
If we want decent housing for all we have to organise and fight for it.
Come to our protest on 22 January highlighting Southwark’s crimes against council housing and to demand decent housing for all.