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Why more homes at genuine social rent are essential to tackling the housing crisis

As a new prime minister is set to take the reins this week, Leslie Channon makes an impassioned personal plea for more social housing to be built

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Picture: Getty
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Why more homes at genuine social rent are essential to tackling the housing crisis, by @LeslieChannon #ukhousing

The housing crisis can no longer be a political issue – it needs to become a humanitarian issue, argues @LeslieChannon #ukhousing

“Unexpectedly finding myself as a single mother with two small boys and in receipt of full benefits was never in my life plan, but nonetheless it became my reality,” writes @LeslieChannon #ukhousing

As I sit here pondering what to write for my first IH50 article, what I know for sure is that it is definitely not a boring time to be working in housing.

The one thing that my mind keeps coming back to as I write is: there needs to be more houses built at social rent. Not affordable rent at 80% of the market rent, which is unaffordable to most people, but true social rent.

Last month at the Housing 2019 conference in Manchester, we heard from the outgoing prime minister Theresa May that the Social Housing Green Paper action plan is on track to be published in September this year and that there will be stronger consumer regulation.

Whether or not there will be a separate consumer regulator has yet to be confirmed.

But the one thing that stuck out for me was that if I hadn’t had the opportunity to be housed in a social home at social rent, I would not be in the position I am in today.


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At the Tpas conference earlier this month, Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, called for the government to invest in social housing at social rent.

The private rental sector is not working for the majority of people and according to Shelter the affordable housing ratio is that no more than 30% of a person’s take-home pay should go towards housing costs.

There are many in our country who are struggling to make enough money to pay the rent, let alone have enough to pay for additional household bills, transportation costs and food. We have all heard the horror stories. It can happen to anyone.

I had enjoyed a successful and exciting career in Los Angeles for more than a decade before returning home to be closer to my ageing parents. Unexpectedly finding myself as a single mother with two small boys and in receipt of full benefits was never in my life plan, but nonetheless it became my reality.

It is only hindsight that makes me starkly aware that I have been one of the lucky ones. I was housed relatively quickly (in four months) and I happened to be placed with a good landlord that embraced co-regulation and scrutiny, and through which I developed my passion for housing. I won the postcode lottery. But that is not everyone’s story.

“It is only hindsight that makes me starkly aware that I have been one of the lucky ones. I won the postcode lottery. But that is not everyone’s story”

However, the growing stigma around social housing tenure hit me hard and I have written previously about my initial shame around living in social housing in an affluent area.

It was quite eye-opening for me to listen to the off-handed comments people made about ‘those people’ sponging off their hard-earned taxes, not realising I was one of those people of which they spoke with such distain and disgust.

Stigma featured heavily in the ministerial roadshows in 2017/18 and a whole chapter was devoted to it in the Social Housing Green Paper.

Having lived in Los Angeles for many years, I noticed that there was not such a heavy focus on or obsession with homeownership.

I never felt stigmatised for renting my apartments. It was easy to move from area to area when work dictated.

Landlords took care of repairs and there was never an issue with substandard accommodation.

I was able to find accommodation where I wanted to live within my price range. There was lots of choice.

This leads to the issue of supply and demand. There have been nearly two million homes lost through Right to Buy between 1980/81 and 2017/18 of which 818,000, almost 40%, have been sold on and are now in the private rental sector.

According to Shelter, there are currently 3.1 million households that need a social home.

Of these, 1.1 million are on the social housing waiting list and only 6,500 social rented homes were built in 2018.

There are more than 300,000 homeless people across Britain, according to Shelter. And last Christmas, the charity estimated that 131,000 children were homeless in England, Scotland and Wales.

These statistics are staggering, shocking and shameful to me.

It makes me pause to question: if my family were to present as homeless today, would we be housed as quickly as in 2010?

I want others to have the same safety net that I was given in my time of need.

The Social Housing Under Threat (SHOUT) campaign has been lobbying for bricks and mortar investment in social housing for many years now, and it is fantastic that Shelter has stepped up to make a robust moral, economic and political case for government and sector investment in building social homes for social rent.

“Building social homes for social rent is the only moral way to cut the housing benefit bill”

Its research has shown that a 20-year investment would be repaid through reduction in housing benefit alone within 30 years.

Building social homes for social rent is the only moral way to cut the housing benefit bill. It is the only way to reach the government’s goal of building 300,000 homes a year, and it would go a long way to solving the housing crisis.

The housing crisis can no longer be a political issue – it needs to become a humanitarian issue.

I call on the sector to get behind Shelter’s rallying cry and work cross-party with the incoming government.

Together we can make a better future for our children.

Leslie Channon, housing and tenant engagement specialist

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