Are we nearly there yet?
At a housing event in 2006, we made cards showing how bad housing affected children and families. We used them to talk about child poverty, which was still an issue 40 years after Shelter was formed. Shelter started 10 days after BBC aired Cathy Come Home, a major British TV documentary.
2006 data on housing and child poverty
In 1966 post war slum clearance was paving the way for new towns and neighbourhoods, building decent housing to replace the high number of dwellings deemed unfit for human habitation.
So how are we doing today? It’s difficult to compare the data we used in 2006, as today the official statistics are more fragmented. Today, the Child Poverty Action Group report that today 4.3 million children are living in poverty.
The 2022 English Housing survey shows that 14% of social housing and 21% of private rented housing is defined as non- decent housing.
Things seem to have been going backwards, prompting Shelter to write an open letter urging politicians to ‘build a new generation of social rent homes to end the housing emergency’
The news reports today all say the next government will face unique challenges. Poor housing over the last 18 years has harmed families, children, and health, causing poor education and lost opportunities. A direct result of this is higher welfare spending and less productivity.
A sustained investment programme in new towns and places, like the housing program from 1945 to 1985, is perhaps the only way we can hope to give everyone a good home, a fundamental society need.
What do you think?