UNISON calls for affordable homes for all

More than a million people are lingering on waiting lists for council houses in England, with UNISON demanding a housing policy that works for working people.

The union has published a new housing manifesto to see in the new decade, after reporting that fewer than 6,500 low-cost social rented homes were built in England in 2017/18. Overn 60 per cent of the housing budget goes towards supporting home-ownership.

Following a decade of austerity, public-service workers and ordinary citizens have been priced out of the housing market: they cannot afford to buy, while private renting is expensive, insecure and unprotected. Furthermore, most people do not qualify for social housing.

UNISON is calling for: a national house-building programme to construct 340,000 new homes a year, including 150,000 for social rent; a new definition of affordable housing, linked to people’s incomes rather than market rents; an end to the loss of social rented homes through schemes such as Right to Buy, which has already been ended in Scotland and Wales; welfare reforms so families are properly supported to meet their housing costs; and a system which ensures no loss of social housing in regeneration schemes.

Sylvia Jones, assistant policy officer, said: “For far too long the housing needs of hard working citizens have been ignored at the expense of the privileged few. It’s time for the UK government to take action and invest in the existing and new social rented homes that are so desperately needed. It needs to make buildings safe, improve the benefits system and protections for tenants in both the social and private housing systems.”