spot Campaigns

spot Organisations

spot Arguments for socialism

All Campaigns subcategories:

Anti-capitalism

Anti-fascist

Anti-racism

Anti-war

Asylum

Black and Asian

Children

CNWP

Corporate crime

Disability

Education

Election campaigns

Environment

Finance

Food

Gender Recognition Act

Health and safety

Health and welfare

Housing

Human Rights

LGBT Pride

Local government

Local services

Low pay

Migration

Nationalisation

New workers party

NHS

Pensions

Post Office

* Poverty

Privatisation

Public Services

Socialism

Socialist

Sport

Stop the slaughter of Tamils

Students

The state

Transport

TUSC

Welfare rights

Women

Workplace and TU campaigns

Youth

Poverty keywords:

Child poverty (41)

Debt (235)

Inequality (85)

Poverty (386)

Relief (20)

Child poverty

Highlight keywords |Print this article

From: The Socialist issue 1010, 19 September 2018: Blairites must go

Search site for keywords: Housing - Homes - Children - Child poverty

250,000 families living in "non-decent" homes: end slum housing now!

Housing demo, London, 13.3.16, photo James Ivens (Click to enlarge)

Robert Cross, school worker, Coventry Socialist Party

A quarter of a million families are bringing up children under the age of four in "non-decent" homes according to a recent report. This is shocking, but after ten years of austerity following the financial crisis, it's hardly surprising.

One in three homes in England at the lowest rents are "non-decent", and the number of those homes where children under four live has gone up by 75,000. "Non-decent" housing includes homes with broken heating, damp walls and even rat infestations.

Successive government attacks on working class people have led to rampant child poverty, slum housing, and landlords "getting away with murder" unimpeded by the law or by local councils - of any establishment party. This is perhaps unsurprising when many local councillors are landlords and letting agents themselves.

I work at a school in an area which has 36% child poverty, and many of our children are homeless.

They end up being sheltered in substandard accommodation owned by slumlords, or bed and breakfasts which are raking it in from vulnerable families because councils don't have proper homes to house people in.

The National Landlords Association responded to the study by saying "successive governments have failed the private rented sector". But it's tenants who've been failed by successive governments, because they haven't protected tenants from dodgy landlords!

We need decent, affordable housing for all, and to get that we need a massive programme of council house building, and rent controls across the housing sector. No-one should be forced to live on the streets or in slum housing.

Donate to the Socialist Party

Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.