Housing conditions amongst worst in Europe
Vulnerable people in Britain live in some of the worst housing conditions in Western Europe, reports launched tomorrow will say.
The studies by a new group, the Pro-Housing Alliance, say the public policy has failed to recognize housing as a public health problem resulting in £7bn annual costs to the NHS, social services and education bodies.
The papers, ‘Recommendations for the Reform of UK Housing Policy’ and ‘Housing Crisis in London’, set out 11 recommendations to tackle the country’s housing problems.
They include a call to provide 500,000 green and affordable homes a year for the next seven years, including re-using empty homes; funding regeneration and affordable housing through reform of land supply and taxation; redefining the term ‘affordable’; and abolishing recent cuts and cto housing benefit.
The reports were written by Professor Peter Ambrose of the University of Brighton and Ben Jenkins, parliamentary researcher of Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, a charity helping people on low incomes who are in debt. Speakers at the launch of the report and the Alliance on Friday in London will include the bishop of Southwark Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, shadow work and pensions minister Karen Buck, Professor Ambrose and Stephen Battersby, president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
