Richard Stubbs looks at the housing crisis in Newham and suggests we should focus on what’s available right now

Boarded up homes with a hand made banner reading 'The People Need Homes' — Image courtesy FocusE15

In September’s Newham Voices the paper focused on the housing crisis, pointing out that “Newham already has the worst homelessness crisis in the country” along with the fact that “Council housing stock has plunged by 35 percent since the right to buy was introduced”.

Our Mayor supports a campaign for Borough-wide mobilisation and government action to help solve the crisis. But what can be done right now to ease this situation? I suggest the quickest approach is to force and facilitate the use of housing that’s already there.

According to Action on Empty Homes, a group that campaigns for the recycling of empty homes to provide housing for those in need, there are around 700,000 homes unfurnished and standing empty in England.

And there are laws that allow Councils to take action to get empty properties if they have been empty for six months. The government could back this six months period and provide support to Councils to use the scheme.

Meanwhile, if you spot a place that is empty you can report it to the Council. Simply go onto to Newham Council’s website at www.newham.gov.uk and type “report empty property” in the search box.

Some empty properties are being bought for investment not to be used for home living, and these properties are sometimes being offered to foreign buyers. According to the Custom House and Canning Town Community Renewal Project, one housing development in Canning Town was marketed in China before Newham.

A walk around many new developments at night in Newham and London reveals many towers with barely a light on and no evidence of occupation. Some owners will have bought a property with a view to profiting from its capital value as the market improves. They have no intention of renting it, let alone living in it.

Increased council tax for unoccupied properties could also help, as would reducing the period of empty time required for this from two years to six months.

There are also empty Council properties. In Newham, for example, the three tower blocks on the Carpenters Estate have been controversially all but empty for years.

These include 434 flats, but in June 2024 only 27 were occupied. I worked with the residents 20 years ago on a television program about the development proposals and, starting in 2004, most residents have been relocated.

However, 20 years later and with the billion-pound master plan promises ringing in our ears, there is still no start date.

This represents thousands of family/years’ worth of wasted homes. Of course, there is a cost in bringing back longempty properties into use, but compared to the ruinous amount of money spent on temporary housing, it would make sense to check the potential for short term use of any properties emptied for redevelopment where contracts are yet to be signed.

In addition, we should lobby the government to re-establish dedicated funding programs to support local authorities and housing providers to create affordable housing from long-term empty homes in all parts of England.

Contemporary approaches to council estate regeneration to provide truly affordable and secure housing for low-income Londoners is the subject of a UCL research report published in August this year by the Public Interest Law Centre (pilc.org.uk). The report, Why cross-subsidy projects can’t solve London’s housing emergency is available on their web site. The report states that the unaffordability of “affordable” housing options replacing council-rent homes after estate demolition “is worsening the housing crisis for working-class Londoners”.

The report calls for sustained public funding to protect, refurbish and properly maintain existing truly affordable and secure council homes.

If we are to see such public investment it must be coupled with ending the “Right to Buy” which has played a large part in the loss of good quality affordable housing in London.

Scotland did this in 2016, specifically to preserve the social housing stock for future generations, so why can’t England?

In summary, we should call on the government to

support action to penalise owners of empty homes
support schemes and legislation to use empty homes including council acquisition and improvement
Provide public investment to improve existing council housing stock while ensuring it remains in public ownership through ending the Right to Buy

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