Just spent my lunch break catching up on last night's #dispatches 'getting rich from the housing crisis' - some thoughts:
It's certainly true that we are losing genuinely affordable homes at a time when we need them more than ever - @CIHhousing analysis show we lost more than 150,000 homes for social rent between 2012 and 2017 alone cih.org/news-article/d…
The total figure is made up of 103,642 local authority homes & 46,972 housing association homes, mostly due to homes being converted to ‘affordable rent’ or being sold through right to buy - dispatches focused solely on housing associations & didn't mention right to buy at all
As others have noted, it's odd that apart from one brief aside, the programme didn't explore the fact that 'affordable rent' was introduced by the government in 2010 & funding for social rent was cut - just one reason why HAs have been looking to increase surpluses (NOT profit)
so they can fund more homes themselves. That's not to say housing associations can abdicate responsibility on 'affordable rent' - as outlined in our #rethinkingsocialhousing report orgs should set rents to make sure that people on low incomes aren't priced out of social housing
There are valid debates to be had about some of the points raised last night - regeneration vs. gentrification, the value existing tenants are getting from their rent/service charges, exec pay etc
But equally it's worth highlighting the work housing associations ARE doing to build and maintain affordable homes and also all the other things they do - helping people find new jobs, supporting victims of domestic abuse, helping older people live happier and healthier lives etc
You can see just a few examples of what social landlords do to support people and communities in our film with @ITNProductions
Finally if you haven't seen last night's #dispatches it's here channel4.com/programmes/dis… and you can download our #rethinkingsocialhousing report here cih.org/resources/PDF/…. Phew!
