As we remember the 72 people who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower today, 14.06.21,  Liam Kelly one of our social housing tenant volunteers asks what has happened in four years since that avoidable tragedy.  Will it be another judicial whitewash as per Hillsborough & Widgery Inquiries…

The Mayor of London’s 2018/19 Annual Monitoring Report of the London Plan was finally published in March 2021. The report includes the latest available information on the new and additional homes built in London during that year. Headline figures are: 35,699 homes (of all types) were delivered, taking into…

The 2021 UK Housing Review, published in April, reveals that 280,000 UK social rented homes were sold, converted to higher rents or demolished between 2012 and 2020, while only 70,000 new social rented homes were built. Right to Buy sales accounted for the loss of 120,000 social rented homes…

LTF members have selected eight of their many regional policy positions to ask Mayoral and London Assembly Member candidates to sign up to. These are: AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Never use the generic term ‘affordable housing’. Always specify: social rented, affordable rent, intermediate rented or shared ownership. ESTATE REGENERATION: (i) Prioritise support…

A positive future for social housing in London: The London Tenants’ Manifesto was launched on 19th January to an audience of tenant representatives from twenty two London boroughs, as well as politicians, think tanks, academics and fellow voluntary sector organisations. The manifesto, which was jointly produced with the…

The Mayor has announced this month that he will end the practice of subsidising the replacement of existing sound-quality social rented homes set to be demolished as part of estate regeneration schemes. This is welcome news. In July last year we published a list of seven things the Mayor…

After lobbying by London Tenants Federation reps, the Mayor is now to spend his affordable housing grant on social rented homes rather than London Affordable Rent. It was announced this month that the Mayor will now use 50% of funding for ‘affordable housing’ in London on social rented homes, with…

In June this year we launched Estate Watch, a new resource for London estate communities affected by demolition which we have developed with Just Space. You can now read an update on our work on Estate Watch with Just Space and Loretta Lees in the Radical Housing Journal. Since…

Two years on from the publication of the Green Paper, and three years on from the Grenfell Tower fire which prompted it, the Social Housing White Paper was published on 17th November. You can find the document, described as a ‘charter for social housing residents’, here. A summary of…

This government needs to show responsibility and leadership when it comes to social housing. In yet one more crucial respect, they are failing in their job to keep us safe.