Tilde Resare, Sheffield South East Socialist Party
Two years ago, Starmer’s government promised a ‘council housing revolution’, however this is nowhere in sight yet. It is easy to see that more housing is needed, currently over 1.3 million households are on a waiting list for social housing, and more than 175,000 children are homeless.
Over a decade and a half of local government austerity has meant council tax rises, and massive service cuts. This has forced an entire generation to live the state of the current housing crisis. In 60 out of 89 council areas not a single social home was built.
If the ruling class’s priority was to actually ensure that people had decent, secure housing then that money would be found. Last year councils spent more than £2 billion on temporary accommodation – paradoxically, homelessness is not cheap. However our society is run by a capitalist class more concerned with growing their wealth and ensuring that their assets keep ever-increasing in value.
At the current pace of new social and council housing developments it will take 119 years to clear current waiting lists, according to a recent report by housing charity Shelter. This is assuming the problem won’t continue to get worse, which it will. To actually ensure that the people in this country can live in dignity we need a new type of politics.
Living in inadequate housing makes it exponentially harder to maintain a steady income and poses a severe and persistent health risk. It is foolish to assume that the people who are unhoused are meant to carry the burden of this crisis while 83 sitting MPs are landlords and actively profiting from the housing market.
The Socialist Party fights for:
- A mass programme of good-quality, environmentally friendly council house building
- Councils should reject the cuts, build the infrastructure we need and send the bill to Starmer’s government. A mass, working-class campaign can win the resources our communities need
- Take the wealth off the super-rich! Nationalise the construction companies, alongside big businesses and the banks so we can use the resources of society to provide for need, not greed!
