Every week Sussex Bylines will be publishing articles related to the general election on 4 July, covering both local and national issues. Broadly, our political sympathies are left of centre and, while Sussex Bylines does not endorse any one political party, we are keen to encourage collaboration between progressive parties and reduce tribalism. Published articles will reflect the views and political stance of individual writers and should not be taken as Sussex Bylines’ endorsement of those views.
A pregnant woman with two young children kicked out of private rented accommodation with six weeks’ notice. She now lives in one room temporary accommodation and spends the days anywhere but in that room, trying only to return when the children go to bed. A healthcare assistant, she is not on benefits and is willing to pay rent for decent council accommodation but she is unable to afford the private rental market. One of the kids, eleven-year-old Grace, came home from school to be told by her Mum that they had to leave their rented home and since then has moved five times in one year. Now she has to wake up earlier to go to school and just wants to have a home like her friends.
The horror stories are everywhere. Families with teenagers about to take their GCSEs offered accommodation hundreds of miles from their schools so the chances of even sitting the examinations shrink drastically. Families with primary school children, most of whom are too young to travel independently, offered rooms miles from school so parents without cars necessarily have to spend the day either at school (and some provide the space) or nearby, spending money that they cannot afford in local shops and cafes.
A migrant from St Lucia, arriving through legal channels, living in one room with three children and waiting indefinitely for any news from the Home Office, but unable to work. A teacher having to give up a much-loved job because he cannot afford to live near the school.
A country-wide scandal
What is going on? Over 140,000 children are homeless, not on the streets, not sleeping rough but nevertheless homeless in sub-standard accommodation, dodgy hotels, miserable hostels, enduring mould, bug infestations, inadequate washing and cooking facilities. Some have called this a ‘housing catastrophe’.
This is not something that the comfortable middle classes can dismiss as a problem experienced by chaotic one-parent families, the unemployed or immigrants – homelessness can affect anyone. It is also not just a challenge for the inner cities and large conurbations – it is country-wide and a scandal that a member of the G7 group of richest nations should not tolerate.
The roots of the homelessness problem
The causes of the problem go back many years. Mark Slater, the Green Councillor responsible for housing in Lewes, and Gary Brettle and Shaun Gilbert, Client Advisers for the Lewes charity Homelink, recall how Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy in the 1980s meant that council tenants could buy their homes for up to a 50% discount.
Margaret Thatcher wanted Britain to ‘become a home-owning’ democracy, maybe to encourage more Tory voters. Unfortunately, councils were not allowed to use the receipts to build new council houses.
Since then there have been 40 years of insufficient low-cost house building while, at the same time, financial deregulation fuelled house price booms of the 1980s and beyond. The private rental sector then grew to take up the slack, with rising costs for renters which, since the cost-of-living crisis, are hiked up even more as landlords attempt to pay increased mortgage rates.
Add to this, the iniquity of the Section 21 no fault eviction notices, which give tenants as little as two months’ notice to leave and also the lure of better profits for landlords doing AirBnB.
As for the country, so for our county, which means, according to Stephen Holt, Leader of Eastbourne Council, that an incredible 49 pence out of every £1 in council income is spent on temporary accommodation. This is unsustainable, even if you were to cut all spending on play groups, arts, libraries, tourist attractions, care services and the basic safety net.
Lewes Council at present has about 80 families in emergency accommodation, almost double that from before the cost-of-living crisis. Those that manage to pay the enormous rents can barely afford anything else, which means there is a hidden poverty problem in the town. Throughout East Sussex, the numbers applying for emergency accommodation have shot up, but coastal towns such as Hastings and Eastbourne appear to be bearing the brunt.
Emergency summit on homelessness
Stephen Holt was so concerned that he organised an emergency summit on homelessness and was overwhelmed by the response, with over 150 councils attending. It became obvious that “without government intervention to tackle the tremendous cost of temporary accommodation and homelessness, the next step for many councils of all stripes is emergency budgets and section 114 notices.”
The government is however turning a deaf ear to appeals for assistance, maintaining that its Renters Reform Bill will fix the problem, despite the fact that abolishing no fault evictions has been delayed.
For his part, Mark Slater is hoping that if Labour wins the election, it will put together a UK-wide housing strategy focused on thousands of homes being built near centres of economic activity where there is adequate infrastructure. In the meantime, he says that Lewes will utilise as much council land as possible to build social housing, using money from a variety of sources including the government’s Affordable Housing Scheme. Some positive steps have been taken already, including Stowe Place in Newhaven.
Charity fills the gap
These developments are a light in the darkness, but the scale of the problem is huge. Whatever happens in the election, the numbers of people who are in need of a permanent home is too vast to be resolved speedily.
Plugging that gap as best they can are charities like Homelink, which is supporting families and single people facing eviction. Loans are given to cover the deposit and a first month’s rent if necessary, also one-off grants to buy furniture or white goods. Advice is also on offer, with somewhere cozy to chat over coffee and get professional support in searching for an affordable rental. From Homelink’s experience it is clear that the problem is growing along with the disparity between Local Housing Allowance and private rents.
Government has clearly failed and despite their sterling efforts, charities, whether local or national, should not be expected to provide the solution. Labour has put forward some solutions. Its manifesto promises the biggest boost to affordable housing in a generation, help for renters including an immediate ban on Section 21 evictions, and a resolve to work with local councils and mayors to end homelessness. This suggests the party understands the urgent need to engage with this crisis, but whether and how quickly it can do it remains to be seen. It is of course necessary for the electorate to first put them in a position of power and then to hold them to their pledges.
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