Tackle housing crisis call

Unite delegate David Oladele tried to get in on a debate on a composite on housing and homelessness at Labour Party Conference on Tuesday (September 29) but he was not called to speak. We’ve included his speech below as a comment piece.

I have 22 years’ experience working in homelessness services.

I have witnessed firsthand how hard it is to find local authority accommodation – with homeless friends of mine stuck in temporary accommodation – often in tiny single rooms for over 10 years!

My union has long argued that investing in housing – particularly council and other social housing – is a win-win for all of us.

Unite members work for local authorities, in housing associations, social care charities, campaign organisations, and advice, helping people made homeless, those in insecure homes, suffering damp and mould from poorly regulated landlords, or wrongly evicted.

We hear many, particularly young members, are struggling with the cost of housing and its impact on their lives.

The housing crisis definitively shows how ‘the market’, left to its own devices, does not magically deliver for the common good!

Government after government has been urged to support the building and improving of homes to create economic growth and jobs, new apprenticeships, revitalised communities, and crucial work to help tackle climate change.

This is a vision of how public investment can deliver.

If this Government is going to start afresh and turn its back on 40 years of failed economic policy, then tackling the housing crisis – not through half-baked market mechanisms – is a good place to start.

Compiled be Hajera Blagg

Photo by Mark Thomas