Octavia Hill's housing dream turns into a nightmare

Yesterday the great and the good unveiled a memorial in Westminster Abbey to commemorate social reformer Octavia Hill, who died 100 years ago. A pioneer thinker and campaigner, she worked to promote the idea of a collective form of property ownership.

Land and buildings of special beauty, she insisted, should be held in trust, on behalf of the nation, inalienably and in perpetuity. This proposal was enshrined in the 1907 National Trust Act.

But Hill did not confine her concerns to aesthetic issues. She saw how private landowners and the demand for profit rode roughshod over places of beauty as well as the lives of millions of workers forced to live in conditions of squalor. With critic John Ruskin, Hill set up social housing schemes to provide homes for some 3,000 tenants in London.

The 20^th century was to see the rise of mass municipal housing schemes which constituted an alternative to the commercial market. But today, decent social housing has virtually become a thing of the last century.

The glaring problems that Hill addressed, rather than being resolved, are worsening. The National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations providing accommodation for some five million people, reports that a major housing crisis in England and Wales is set to worsen rapidly.

One in 12 families in England is currently waiting for social housing, while homelessness has risen by 26% over the last two years. Social housing stock has plummeted over the last decades as rents and property prices continue to soar.

The cost of privately renting a home has gone up by 37% over the last five years. The result is that 417,830 families presently depend on housing benefit to help them pay private rents – an increase as the NHF points out – of 86% in only three years.

Rising housing costs have a disastrous impact on the lives of millions of people, especially young families. Incomes have not kept up with housing costs with the result that increasing numbers of people who in employment need to claim benefits just to keep a roof over their heads.

A market analysis by Oxford Economics shows that social and public house building is dwarfed by the commercial market: 72,876 new homes were built by the private sector, 43,164 by housing associations and a mere 1,830 by local authorities in 2011-12.

The future is equally gloomy. House prices and rents are forecast to show steep increases. Private rents – already unaffordable for many – could be some 27% higher by 2017.

Perhaps the most shocking reality is the contrast between house prices, rents  and earnings. London heads the list. The average house price in London in 2011 was a staggering £421,395. For a 75% mortgage you would need an income of £90,299 per year plus a substantial deposit. Not too surprisingly, the lowest house prices are in the North-east – one of the most deprived, high unemployment areas of England.

Amongst other proposals, the NHF calls for the government to release more public land for building by housing associations and to invest in more social housing.

But is building on brownfield sites what is likely to be low quality housing while huge numbers of properties stand vacant or need upgrading really the way to go?  Such measures can only be sticking plaster on a huge festering wound. A revolutionary housing policy is needed to end the recurring misery of homelessness, overcrowding, soaring rents and exploitative landlords.

The right to affordable housing must be worked for side by side with, as Octavia Hill foresaw, the protection of open spaces for the appreciation of all. The fight for a social right to decent housing will be central to the creation of an Agreement of the People, which will begin in London on November 17.

Corinna Lotz

A World to Win secretary

Labour backs Tories to criminalise squatting

When 90% of those responding to a consultation on new anti-squatting laws say changes aren’t needed, what does the ConDem government do? Rush through new legislation that makes squatting a criminal offence for the first time, of course.

A new clause tacked on to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill means that anyone found squatting in any residential property would face a year in jail and/or a £5,000 fine.

Even the secretive, unaccountable Association of Chief Police Officers told the Ministry of Justice that the existing law was "broadly in the right place. In its evidence to the government, the Metropolitan Police said that “despite some of the claims in sections of the press, the reality is that there are already more than adequate means for removing squatters.”

That puts the police well to the left of Labour, who are poised to back the government’s sleight of hand. According to reports in The Guardian, Labour intends to back the change to “show their support for homeowners”.

All the housing campaigns and advice organisations were dead against any change and the Law Society and Criminal Bar Association were strongly opposed to new trespass laws.

Labour’s support for any new “law-and-order” measure is intended to curry favour with the right-wing media. With Ed Miliband’s party supporting free schools, the sale of council homes, cuts in welfare benefits and refusing to support unions resisting attacks on their pensions, they are in a race to the bottom with the Tories.

Labour MP John McDonnell MP is increasingly a lone voice against what is practically a national coalition in a whole range of policy areas. Describing the new clause as an “appalling attack on the homeless”, he has urged the party’s rank and file to put pressure on Miliband’s team to oppose the clause, more in hope than in expectation one would think.

All the housing charities, Crisis, Thames Reach, Shelter, Homelessness Link, Housing Justice , St Mungo’s and the Squatters Advisory Service argue that squatting is a symptom of the worsening housing crisis and that for many homeless and vulnerable people squatting is the only way of avoiding rough sleeping.

Leslie Morphy, Crisis chief executive, said: "A year's imprisonment for some of society's most vulnerable and desperate people is draconian and utterly counterproductive. Independent research is clear that 40% of single homeless people have resorted to squatting.”

Recent research for Crisis shows that squatters are among the most vulnerable homeless people and suffer from learning disabilities, mental illness and drug and alcohol problems. Squatters are more likely to suffer from mental illness and drug addiction than other homeless people, according to a new report.

“They squat out of necessity, not choice, in atrocious conditions where they are least likely to be disturbed. These are people that need help, not a year behind bars and a £5,000 fine," said Morphy.

The report also found that 78% of homeless people who squat had approached their council for help and been recognised as homeless but were not entitled to housing as they were not considered a priority.

There are more than 730,000 vacant homes in England alone, according to statistics. Yet most people, whether earning or not, cannot access social housing or afford private rented accommodation, let alone get a mortgage because house prices have gone into orbit.

A social system that cannot provide decent housing for its citizens, that is slashing living standards and driving people into despair to appease the money markets, and is now planning to criminalise those who seek a roof over their heads, simply doesn’t merit support of any kind. And nor does Labour, which endorses these vicious attacks.

Paul Feldman

Communications editor