“The real dream is to live a life where you can forget about housing. Where a secure, genuinely affordable home is no longer a privilege, nor is it nirvana. It is simply somewhere safe and warm to eat, sleep, wash, relax, and store your belongings, ideally close to friends, family and work.”
Chloe Timperley’s words in her book, Generation Rent, reflect UNISON’s fundamental position on housing: everyone has a basic human right to a decent and affordable home.
Currently, the UK’s housing system doesn’t achieve this. It is unaffordable and insecure. It divides people into the haves and have-nots, which sustains generational wealth inequality. It is causing a surge in statutory homelessness and it is having a profound, negative impact on people’s health. As a result, it has become a huge burden on public services.
The UK’s housing system is broken.
How did we get here?
Sylvia Jones, UNISON’s housing policy expert, sums it up: “Put simply, we don’t have enough housing to meet the needs of the population.”
Aside from not building enough, there have been a number of significant housing policy failings over decades. Fundamental to these, Sylvia argues, is that “the narrative about battling the housing crisis has been focussed on homeownership for so long.
“There have been all sorts of homeownership ‘products’ – Right to Buy, Help to Buy, shared ownership – but there has been very little investment in social housing, and very little thoughtful or effective regulation in the private rented sector.”
Social housing
In the 35 years after World War II, 4.4m social houses were built. Social housing was at its peak in 1980 when Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced the Right to Buy policy. It was presented as an elegant way to allow working class council tenants to achieve their ‘life ambitions’ to own their own home.
In many ways, it was successful:
hundreds of thousands of people were able to buy their own council home at a hugely discounted rate. It was also a shrewdly designed ticking time-bomb intended to demolish the social housing system. It was successful there too.
As a result, the UK’s social housing stock has moved from public ownership and it has not been replaced. This created a gaping hole at the heart of housing which has been filled by the private rented market.
Right to Buy was ‘pivotal’, Sylvia says. “It completely changed the way people and politicians viewed housing – homeownership became the be all and end all. Social housing was doomed from that point.”
Now, it is extremely difficult to access social housing. Recent reports by The Times suggest that the average waiting time for social housing is nearly three years. In London, that rises to 6.6 years. In reality, unless you have a ‘priority need’ for social housing, these averages are much, much higher.
Buy to let
In the late 1990s, the buy-to-let mortgage was introduced by banks. It has led to the private rented sector doubling in size and overtaking the social sector. In 1996, 10% of the UK population rented privately while 21% rented socially. By 2022, 19% rented privately and under 17% rented socially. Buy-to-let mortgages meant that buying and letting out a second property became an ‘accessible investment’ (as well as being a relatively safe and lucrative one). The demand for housing increased rapidly and house prices rose significantly and consistently. Which is good for homeowners (particularly those without mortgages) but has proved to be terrible for those who don’t own.
Once priced out of the housing market, it’s impossible to get on. Private rents have gone up significantly more than wages, so renters struggle to save for deposits and become trapped in renting indefinitely. In 2024, the UNISON and Generation Rent report, The private rental crisis – voices from the frontline, found that nearly a third (32%) of UNISON’s private renter members were spending 60% or more of their income on their rent.
Why is this a trade union issue?
“We represent tens of thousands of members working in housing across local government, housing associations and charities who deliver essential housing services,” says Sylvia.
“Over decades, their funding has been slashed, and their workloads have skyrocketed. Housing services have become a one-stop shop for people who are in desperate need of strong public services, but who can’t access them after a decade of austerity.
“But it’s also a citizenship issue for all public-sector workers,” she continues, “The housing crisis has become a multi-faceted assault on their living standards and well-being.
“Basic needs have been pitted against each other – heat or eat, rent or essentials. It’s not just financial strain but a daily battle for survival. This stress directly impacts their quality of life, their ability to support their families and their productivity at work.”
The housing crisis also piles huge pressure on public services through increased demand. For example, increasing unaffordability, paired with inaccessible social housing has caused a huge increase in statutory homelessness. Last year, according to Crisis, a record 117,450 households were being forced to live in temporary accommodation, a 12% increase on the previous year. This comes at a huge cost for the State. Between April 2023 and March 2024, local authorities spent £2.29bn on temporary accommodation, 29% more than the year before.
There are also huge issues with the quality of private and social housing stock. Sylvia says: “Much of Britain’s housing stock is old, cold, poorly ventilated – leading to damp and mould – and poorly maintained.”
The UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe, with15% of UK homes failing to meet the Decent Homes Standard – the highest proportion in Europe.
The effects of this are plain to see. In 2023 the Resolution Foundation reported that people living in poor-quality housing are twice as likely to report poor general health compared to those who don’t (22% compared to 11%). Estimates put the societal cost (the cost to the NHS for example) of poor housing at somewhere near £18bn a year.
The crisis is also fuelling a recruitment and retention crisis across all services. Sylvia explains: “Essential workers are being priced out of their communities, unable to afford to live near their places of work. It leads to the critical staffing shortages we see in the NHS, in social care, in education and in local government.”
The numbers are stark: 32% of public service workers are considering relocation due to housing costs, with that figure rising
to 47% in the private rental sector.
So what can UNISON do about all this?
“UNISON is a powerful force for change,” says Sylvia. “As the leading union representing housing workers, the issue is a priority for campaigning and organising efforts. Our goal is to champion solutions that not only enhance the pay and housing conditions of members, but that also empower workers and strengthen public services.”
UNISON is focussing on several areas:
Private rented sector
UNISON has been a key lobbying voice for the new Labour government’s Renters’ Rights Bill making its way through Parliament.
Sylvia says: “We recognise the bill’s potential to transform the lives of renters. In particular, the banning of ‘Section 21 no-fault evictions’ – one of the leading causes of homelessness, the end of fixed-term rental agreements, protections against above-market rent increases, and the banning of ‘rental bidding wars’.
“But, while it represents substantial progress in terms of tenancy security, we recognise that it does not yet fully address the systemic issues of housing supply and affordability. We have pushed and will continue to push the government on practical solutions to these issues.
“Furthermore, while it gives local authorities more power to enforce standards on the private rented sector, which we support, this power must come with the necessary resources. Piling more work, however valuable, on overworked and under-resourced housing departments and workers will serve little purpose.
Social Housing
“UNISON believes council and social housing is the only truly affordable, stable housing option in the market and investing in it is a sound economic strategy. But to be effective it needs significant investment and long-term ambition. If the government is serious about its pledge to build 1.5m houses over the life of this parliament it will need to be spearheaded by an era-defining expansion of social housing.
“UNISON will continue to make the case for social housing and relentlessly lobby for the vital investment to empower local authorities and deliver lasting change, both for housing workers and for all public service workers struggling with their housing.”
And the rest…
There are many other areas where UNISON is lobbying the government, including around green insulation and retrofitting, the abolition of the Right to Buy scheme, the redefinition of ‘affordable’ housing or rents, and investing in the existing social stock to ensure it meets decent standards.
You can take action now by emailing your MP
about council funding unsn.uk/4gqb3N6.
If you want to read more about housing or more about UNISON’s research and current work, visit: unsn.uk/U-housing
