Housing: creative solutions

Climate change affects everyone, but its impacts are far from equal. Across the UK and globally, those living in poor quality housing face the harshest consequences of our changing climate, creating a cruel irony where the people who contributed least to global warming suffer most from its effects. The Heat Island Effect: When Housing Location Becomes Life-Threatening People on low incomes are more likely to live in housing not suited to heat and are twice as likely to live in places that are significantly hotter than neighbouring areas due to the 'urban heat island' effect. This phenomenon means that while affluent neighbourhoods enjoy tree-lined streets and green spaces that naturally cool the air, poorer communities endure concrete jungles that trap and intensify heat. The statistics are stark: around a quarter of the poorest families live in homes that regularly overheat, compared to just one in twenty of the richest households. This isn't simply about comfort—it...

  Another year, another grotesque symptom of Britain's broken housing market. While families languish on ever-lengthening social housing waiting lists, consigned to the precariousness of private renting, a different story unfolds for a select few. 2024 saw a record surge in the creation of limited companies designed solely to hoover up buy-to-let properties. Sixty thousand of these entities sprouted up last year, a 23% jump from the previous "record" in 2023. Let's be clear: this isn't about providing homes ; it's about financial engineering, about exploiting a system rigged in favour of the propertied class. This isn't some sudden blip, but a deliberate, decade-long trend, turbo-charged since 2018 when the tax rules were conveniently "rewritten" for landlords. Now, nearly 400,000 buy-to-let companies stalk the land, gobbling up homes and turning them into investment vehicles. We're told 70-75% of new buy-to-let purchases are now funnelled...

Everyone deserves a safe and secure place to call home. Yet in England today, a growing number of people struggle to access this basic need. While hundreds of thousands of properties sit empty, the housing crisis deepens. A Growing Problem, a Missed Opportunity But there's a glimmer of hope. Studies show that repurposing empty properties could create up to 40,000 affordable homes within four years. It wouldn't solve everything, but it would offer a lifeline to countless individuals on the brink of homelessness. This is a wasted opportunity. No one should face homelessness when solutions exist. Families with children are crammed into single rooms, forced to prepare for work in drafty cars, or uprooted from jobs and support networks due to a lack of affordable options. The government's inaction on empty properties is unacceptable. Long-term empty homes, vacant for over six months, have skyrocketed to over 248,000 – a 24% increase in just six years. This coincides with recor...