Local leaders Sheila Davis and Sue Anya have been representing MPCAN on a new Commission aiming to accelerate the delivery of sustainable homes for social rent since July 2024. The Commission is going from strength to strength and leaders from Moss Side and Wythenshawe represented our collective asks at the House of Lords last week – read more about this below…
Zoe Marlow and Thirza Asanga-Rae put the human cost of the housing crisis centre-stage on Wednesday through powerful lived experience testimonies at the launch of the Manchester Social Housing Commission’s first policy brief in the House of Lords.
Zoe, who is a local Wythenshawe leader at Dandelion Savers and Wythenshawe Central community network spoke about the crippling impacts of the bedroom tax which has led to her being charged for two extra bedrooms (after her children moved out) and living under threat of eviction from rent arrears. Like many in her situation, she has not been offered an alternative property to move into, despite also having developed two long term conditions that mean she cannot manage the stairs. As she shared at the Commission’s parliamentary reception:
“I didn’t ask to have a spare bedroom… I can’t afford to heat a three-bedroom house”
Thirza, Organiser with GM Tenants Union, Director of Windrush Millenium Centre in Moss Side, and mum of four, shared the appalling experiences of damp, mould, leaks and hazardous housing over many years that spurred her into action with the Tenants Union. She said of one property:
“There were two leaks, one from the roof into the bedroom where my boys slept – all under 5 or 6 at the time – and leaks from the bathroom into the kitchen. I would complain and complain…they would replaster…and, you who lives there knows that they haven’t fixed it, they haven’t got to the root of the problem. There was water leaking on to electric plug sockets where my youngest liked to sit while I was cooking”.
Zoe and Thirza attended the session as Commissioners to make five urgent policy asks of Members of Parliament and the House of Lords together with: Right Reverend Dr David Walker, Bishop of Manchester; Associate Professor Stuart Hodkinson Associate Professor, University of Leeds and author of Safe as Houses; and Venus Galarza, Policy Manager for Shelter.
Five urgent policy asks:
1. Reinvest in Social Rent: The recent announcement of £500 million in additional funding is a drop in the ocean compared to need. The Commission’s policy brief cites evidence that estimates £14.6bn in capital funding is needed each year over a ten year period to meet social rented housing need.
2. Reform Planning to Prioritise Sustainable Social Rent in Affordable Housing Delivery: The Commission recommends that government clearly distinguishes between Social Rent and other ‘affordable housing’ tenures, alongside the reinstatement of national statutory planning targets for social rent and ending the current developer viability opt-out, and allowing local plans to go beyond minimum building regulations in requiring better energy standards and ecological design.
3. Rethink the Right to Buy: Government must go further than reducing the discounts and suspend the RTB/ Right to Acquire for existing and new tenants with a view to outright abolition to prevent the further loss of social rented homes that also acts as a disincentive to new supply.
4. Retrofit long-term empty homes for sustainable social rent: Local authorities should be empowered to bring the large number of long-term empty homes back into use as social rented housing retrofitted to high energy standards through targeted grant funding, stronger compulsory purchase powers, tougher and mandatory council tax premiums, and the abolition of VAT on refurbishment.
5. Embed Community Voice and Ownership into the Planning System: Communities and their locally elected representatives should have stronger statutory powers within the planning system to properly shape the investment decisions that are made about their own neighbourhoods, with longer-term funding to support neighbourhood planning and community-led development.
Without national action on these policy areas now, cities like Manchester will not be able to make any significant impact to reduce the housing emergency at a local level. There are now 18,000 households on the waiting list for a social rented home in the city of Manchester alone, yet between 2012-2022 only 2% of new build homes in Manchester were for social rent.
To find out more about the Manchester Social Housing Commission visit: https://www.socialhomes4mcr.org.uk/commission
To get involved and find out more about what you can do to support the campaign for national policy action and local action on the housing crisis visit: https://www.socialhomes4mcr.org.uk/get-involved
