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Halisha Kaur is chair of CIH Futures
The government wants to weaponise social housing in its fight against asylum seekers. We cannot let that happen
We must not allow our existing and future tenants be scapegoated as the cause of this country’s failure to deliver enough homes, writes Halisha Kaur
Shortly after resigning, Robert Jenrick, the now former Home Office minister and former housing secretary, appeared on the BBC with Laura Kuenssberg to outline his opposition to the government’s controversial Rwanda Bill.
He criticised it for not going far enough to deter illegal migration and outlined some of the reasons he felt so passionately about this – namely that the current inadequacies of the immigration system were leading to the erosion of community cohesion and put further pressure on the availability of social housing.
And he’s not the first in recent weeks to be discussing whether too much social housing is allocated to so-called “non-British” households.
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The prime minister himself has commented over the past year that net migration should be controlled otherwise it could lead to “unmanageable pressures on housing, schools and hospitals in many of our communities” before speaking at a conference in Italy in December 2023 and stating that current levels of immigration could “overwhelm” European countries.
This is a risky moment for the sector. The government is using this rhetoric to side-step its own failure to build enough social housing after nearly 14 years in power. It is attempting to build a narrative that the lack of social housing is being worsened by the current levels of migration.
This could not be further from the truth. It is simply that there has been a failure to deliver a long-term housing strategy with social housing at its heart.
“[Government] is attempting to build a narrative that the lack of social housing is being worsened by the current levels of migration. This could not be further from the truth”
Social housing performs a vital role in not just providing and maintaining homes but also building communities.
We provide homes to those who need them, and everyone deserves safe and secure accommodation.
Some housing providers even do amazing work with people with no recourse to public funds to ensure that those who aren’t eligible for social housing can find safe accommodation.
There has also been great work done across the sector to find accommodation for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees over the past few years. However, if we allow the idea that safe, secure and affordable housing is only available to certain “deserving” groups to take hold, then it could harm the communities we work so hard to bring together.
This is a pivotal moment for us to reject the government’s narrative and instead celebrate and recognise the diversity of the communities we serve as a source of pride and strength. We can’t allow it to be weaponised by politicians participating in the current ‘culture war’ that seeks to divide communities rather than unite them.
We also can’t allow the government to be let off the hook for a failure to deliver social housing that has led to almost 140,000 children in temporary accommodation and more than one million households on social housing waiting lists.
I was appointed chair of CIH Futures in November last year. We act as a voice for and advocate for younger housing professionals.
We want to play our part in making housing a career of choice and one of our core foundations is a firm commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. We want to use our platform to support voices that can often go unheard. We exist to advocate for a sector that is more equitable and inclusive, and more representative of the communities we serve.
“If we allow the idea that safe, secure and affordable housing is only available to certain ‘deserving’ groups to take hold, then it could harm the communities we work so hard to bring together”
This is a time to be proud of the progress the sector has made but also look at how we can invest in doing more to improve this. From a CIH Futures perspective, if we invest in younger people in the sector and in improving the routes into a career in housing, we can build a strong pipeline of young and diverse emerging talent. This would build a solid foundation for a more inclusive and more representative sector in the long run.
Although the sector still has some work to do in becoming more representative and inclusive, our connection to diverse communities throughout the country should be one of our biggest strengths.
We can’t allow our social purpose be used as a political football and for our existing and future tenants to be stigmatised and scapegoated as the cause of this country’s failure to deliver enough homes.
Halisha Kaur, chair, CIH Futures
