Stuart Ropke and Helen Northmore reflect on the Homes for Britain rally and reception that gave housing a voice in the general election campaign
FROM LLOYD GEORGE’S promise of ‘homes fit for heroes’ to Margaret Thatcher’s dream of a property-owning democracy, housing was at the centre of British politics for more than a century. In recent years it has fallen off the political agenda, yet rarely has it mattered as much as it does now.
For decades we have failed to build enough new homes. Some 14,200 new homes are needed in Wales every year to meet current demand. This failure to build means many people can’t start a family because they can’t afford to move. Many adults still live with their parents in overcrowded homes, or they move away from their family and the area they grew up in because they are priced out of the local housing market. Many struggle on a daily basis to afford to keep a roof over their heads. The housing crisis is affecting people from all walks of life and all parts of Wales.
Investing in homes provides so much more than the physical bricks and mortar – it creates jobs, stimulates the economy, helps build resilient communities and changes lives.
That’s why a contingent of 50 people from 23 organisations across Wales travelled to London on March 17 to support the Homes for Britain rally and to stand with housing colleagues from across the UK to call on all political parties to end the housing crisis within a generation. It was a long day for the Welsh delegation led by Community Housing Cymru and the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru including staff, board members and tenants.
Housing is devolved to Wales, and we wanted to ensure that Welsh MPs were involved in discussions and playing their part to end the housing crisis in Wales. We held a lunchtime reception for Welsh MPs in the House of Commons, sponsored by David T C Davies, chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee in Westminster.
It was a productive meeting with the 20 MPs who attended and our message to them was simple: the housing sector in Wales has a good story to tell. We spent over £1 billion in the economy last year, of which 80 per cent was retained in Wales. We spent an additional £514 million on activities related to regeneration projects. We are a major employer and for every one full time person employed in the sector, one and a half other jobs are supported within the Welsh economy.
We are continuing to invest heavily in services for tenants and communities and our economic impact continues to grow – we want to do more, we’re ready to do more, but some decisions being made in Westminster are having a real impact on our members’ ability to build more homes and invest in communities.
We discussed how welfare reform is having a big impact in Wales and how it is exacerbating the housing crisis here. We highlighted the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’ in Wales – rent arrears across the sector increased by more than £5 million in the first six months of the policy being introduced with over half of social housing tenants seeing an increase in their levels of personal debt.
MPs were particularly interested to learn that Wales will not have the same flexibility afforded to Scotland and Northern Ireland to enable the housing element of universal credit to continue to be paid direct to landlords, and the impact that this potentially has on tenants and housing associations.
We highlighted how these policies pose a very real threat to tenants’ financial wellbeing and have implications for housing associations and their capacity to build more homes and invest
in communities. We look forward to continuing to make these arguments with all political parties in the run up to the general election.
We then made the short walk across College Green to attend the biggest housing rally in a generation. There was a great atmosphere around the venue as rally attendees converged from right across the country.
Some 2,300 people packed the Central Methodist Hall to hear from an eclectic selection of speakers with all political parties represented. The event was chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby.
In addition to the political parties, supporting voices included Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, who said: ‘This generation, unless something changes, hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting a first home or off social housing waiting lists.’
The biggest cheer at the rally was for film director Ken Loach, whose Cathy Come Home TV play led to the founding of Shelter. He said that the housing situation is worse now that it was 50 years ago.
The event attracted significant media attention and had huge social media impact both in the run-up, during and after the event. As an exercise designed to amplify the message of the housing crisis before the short election campaign, it was undoubtedly a
success. Perhaps more significantly, the consensus amongst the housing associations involved is that for the first time in decades, the sector feels and is behaving like a movement again.
Homes for Britain has offered us in Wales the opportunity to raise the profile of housing issues across the UK. Our main focus now is the Welsh Assembly Elections in May 2016.
Housing has found its voice across the UK and our challenge now is to build on this success, amplify our voice right across Wales and ensure that housing is a key election issue being discussed on the doorstep by our politicians and members of the public this time next year.
Stuart Ropke is chief executive of CHC and Helen Northmore is director of CIH Cymru
For a flavour of the day from a Welsh perspective, take a look at this Storify: storify.com/Beth_CHC/welsh-mp-reception