Fight for good-quality council homes for all
by Jacob Stevens, South East London Socialist Party
Homeowners in some ‘affordable’ housing schemes are experiencing the reality of the capitalist housing crisis. Residents in some housing associations face service charges of over £8,000 a year, affordable only for the wealthiest in society.
Residents with shared-ownership schemes own a percentage of the property with a mortgage, and pay subsided rent on top of that. In addition, owners of these properties usually pay between £250-£350 a month for service charges; these could be hiked up to £600 after being sold.
in Southwark. Photo: Berkay Kartav
This has caught the attention of the Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) which will challenge these exorbitant prices by filing a report to the National Audit Office (NAO), claiming incorrect billing and failing to provide suitable proof of charges.
In many developments, occupants in ‘affordable homes’ are segregated from owners of private flats by having two separate entrances, one being the ‘poor door’ for those not privately renting. If the occupants of these ‘affordable’ properties fail to pay the up to 83% increase in service charges, they could be evicted from their homes, leaving many in a precarious situation, worried and stressed about how to pay. In some developments SHAC has organised tenants to begin withholding service charges to protest the hikes. This is emblematic of a degraded system that chastises and ostracises poor and working-class people.
We need action now to solve the housing crises. Councils could institute a cap on rents and service charges, and start building high-quality council houses for all. Housing Association homes should be moved back into council ownership with genuine democratic say for tenants, along with the thousands of empty properties, and the resources to maintain them provided by the government. Low-interest mortgages for potential homebuyers could be provided by nationalised banks under democratic workers’ control and management. We could nationalise the large building companies which profit off the misery of the residents stuck in poor-quality homes they build. Finally, democratic, tenant-based bodies made up of workers and representatives of trade unions could make decisions and fight for the people they represent.
SHAC Housing Crisis Workplace Impact Survey
Housing campaign group SHAC is conducting a survey about the impact of the housing crisis in the workplace. The aim is to capture data that can help more easily target trade union resources towards the right support for members, as well as providing campaign data. The survey is completely anonymous. It asks about the impact of rising rents, as well as illness and injury triggered by bad housing which leads to workplace absence.
- Please help by taking the survey and circulating within your network: https://shaction.org/housing-in-the-workplace-survey/