Learning from housing’s Bayeux Tapestry of missed opportunities

Comment21.05.20by Martin Hilditch

COVID-19 cannot be solely to blame for a potential glut of failed tenancies – there have been plenty of warnings to fix a broken system in the past, writes Martin Hilditch

There has been a Bayeux Tapestry of missed opportunities (picture: Getty)

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We must learn from housing’s Bayeux Tapestry of missed opportunities, writes @martinhilditch #ukhousing

“COVID-19 is another disaster where we failed to look around us and heed the warning signs,” writes @martinhilditch #ukhousing

By now we all know that the years leading up to the Grenfell Tower tragedy are a Bayeux Tapestry of missed opportunities.

One warning after another about the potential for a devastating fire in tower blocks passed by with barely an eyebrow raised in response. In the UK alone there had been the Lakanal House fire, which claimed six lives, and the Shepherd’s Court fire in very recent memory. There had been numerous fires abroad too – such as the blaze that spread through the high-rise block Mermoz, in the French city of Roubaix, in 2012. Then there was the spread of fire due to aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding on the Lacrosse Tower in Melbourne, Australia, in November 2014, and the 79-storey Torch Tower fire in Dubai in 2015, to name but a few.

Inside Housing will be publishing more in-depth work on fire safety in a few weeks’ time to mark the third anniversary of the Grenfell fire (although listening to residents’ stories at the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on Monday makes you despair at the rate of progress since). There is, however, a danger we’re repeating mistakes when it comes to our response to coronavirus.

To pluck one example from the air, there’s the failure to heed the warnings of the 2004 Barker Review of Housing Supply. Or, there’s the lost generation of social rented housing (an absence that Shelter’s housing commission called to be urgently rectified at the start of last year). Then there’s a benefit system that leaves people struggling to afford stable housing and is not fit for the current emergency – and if we’re after another lesson, then we should be looking again at a package to enable social landlords to acquire homes, à la the 1990s.

And, like with fire safety, we should also be casting our net more widely for solutions. Clearly other countries are struggling with similar issues to the UK right now and digging around for their own answers. This week’s main Inside Housing analysis looks at some of the housing options being considered or enacted across Europe right now – and we’ll also be scrutinising approaches taken by landlords in other countries as part of Digital Housing Week from 22-26 June.

COVID-19 is another disaster in which we failed to look around us and heed the warning signs (hello, Ebola and SARS). We’ve got to get better at paying attention in class.