Latest official statistics show 358,370 households in England threatened with homelessness or losing their home. These are record numbers. Recent analysis by the Financial Times found that one in every 200 households in the UK is experiencing homelessness.

Labour makes empty promises to build 1.5 million homes. In practice, Labour’s reliance on the market means developers get handed huge sums in government funding, often from Labour-run councils, but then build unaffordable housing which is
out of reach for the majority. In Bristol, huge blocks are going up round the city with immense profits for developers. Yet locally and nationally, numbers soar of families in temporary or dangerously unfit accommodation and we see ever more street
homeless.

Homelessness is used by far-right parties like Reform UK in order to further their scapegoating racist agenda. But the housing crisis has nothing to do with migration. It results from the policy of successive governments and a system that puts profit before everything else. This Labour government has betrayed the working-class people who voted for them, who hoped desperately for change.

But decent housing is achievable, and affordable in the here and now. If ministers can spend billions of pounds on weapons and war, if they can give tax cuts to the rich, then they can build council housing. Housing should be developed to meet community
needs. Income from rents should be spent on repairs and retrofitting of those homes. Up and down the country people are organising to demand better.

Come to this meetingto discuss how we fight for the housing we need. The speaker this week is Morag Gillie, a Unison housing advisor and campaigner, plus Nigel Varley, local council tenant and housing activist. Hosted by Bristol Socialist Workers Party.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions — Read more — Read less