For over a century, council housing has been at
the heart of the fight for decent living conditions for working people. Trade unions like UNISON have long been at the forefront, resisting selloffs, fighting for investment, and demanding housing as a right, not a commodity.
Early 20th century: 1919 – 1939
Up until the early 20th century, workers lived at the mercy of private landlords. Housing was overcrowded and often slum-like. After decades of pressure from trade unions and the wider Labour movement through figures like Keir Hardie, the 1919 Addison Act was passed. It represented the first large-scale government commitment to council housing. Branded as ‘Homes for Heroes’ after the First World War, local authorities were given public funding to build homes. Over the next 20 years before the Second World War further acts of Parliament saw a focus on removing slums and introducing incentives for councils to build housing.
The golden era: 1946 – 1979
The end of the war ushered in an era of collective responsibility. Alongside the creation of the NHS, Clement Attlee’s government created the 1946 New Towns Act. The act set the basis for a huge expansion in council housing. In the 35 years after the war, 4.4m council houses were built, peaking at just under 200,000 in a single year, 1954. Trade unions played a key role in this period, advocating for more council homes and organising in the local authority housing departments. By the late 1970s, council housing represented 30% of all homes.
Thatcherism: 1980 – 1996
A host of policies from Thatcher’s government took aim at public services and trade unions. The most damaging for council housing was the Right to Buy scheme. It allowed council tenants to buy their homes at heavily discounted prices. Good for the tenant but devastating in the long term for council housing. Councils were barred from using revenues of sales to build replacements. A hole was drilled through the bottom of the council housing bucket. In 1979, 42% of Britons lived in council homes, in 2016, this was just 8%.
The housing crisis: 1996 – present
New Labour under Tony Blair pushed the ‘third way’ between public and private housing and oversaw councils transferring their stock to housing associations or arm’s length management organisations (ALMOs). This laid the groundwork for higher social rents, decreased tenancy rights and an almost complete stagnation in the building of new council homes. The lack of regulation in the private rented sector, the increasing unaffordability of house ownership and the continued lack of investment in social housing has left the housing sector in the UK in complete crisis.
The future of council housing
In the 2024 general election, Labour ran on a manifesto commitment to build 1.5m new homes over the course of its first parliament. Since being elected, the government, spearheaded by minister for housing and local government Angela Rayner, has doubled down on this ambitious target, focussing on reforming and reducing planning regulation to kickstart building and introducing mandatory housing targets for local authorities.
These increased targets tell local authorities how many new houses, whether private or social, should be built each year in their area. Since the election, the government has made major policy announcements in social housing. In the autumn budget, a £500 million increase in housing investment was announced, alongside reforms to the Right to Buy policy. These reforms include a reduction in the discount offered to social tenants purchasing their homes.
Furthermore, the government has changed the rules to allow councils and housing associations to retain 100% of the proceeds from Right to Buy sales, eliminating the requirement to return a portion to the Treasury. Following an initial £350m investment in March, the chancellor recently announced an additional £2 billion package to facilitate the construction of up to 18,000 social and affordable homes across England. This initiative contributes to the government’s broader objective of building 1.5m homes across all tenures by 2029.
What UNISON wants
Sylvia Jones (left) is UNISON’s lead on housing policy, and puts forward the union’s position: “UNISON welcomes the government’s commitment to addressing the housing crisis, particularly the increased investment to build 18,000 new social homes. To ensure accessibility for homeless households, individuals on waiting lists, and those on modest incomes or those priced out of the market, the majority of these homes should be offered at social rent rates.
“However, the current funding is insufficient. To effectively address the housing crisis, the government must allocate significant funding in the forthcoming Spending Review to construct at least 100,000 new social homes at social rent rates annually. Additionally, the Right to Buy policy should be abolished entirely to prevent the continued loss of publicly owned housing stock. And while retaining 100% of Right to Buy sales revenue is a necessary step for local authorities, achieving the government’s house-building targets requires a shift away from reliance on ongoing housing revenue.
“Instead, local authorities need significant upfront capital grants and subsidies. Social housing should be viewed as a way to kickstart economic growth and is a long-term investment which pays for itself many times over given time. Upfront investment would create green jobs, reinvigorate local economies, and benefit the economy and the population in the medium to long-term.”
