'March against evictions' 19 September 2015 (Peter Marshall/Demotix)At the time of writing, the shadow of yet another block of luxury flats looms over me in Tottenham. The noise and mess associated with house building seems to be an almost permanent fixture in London, but how many of us have a secure home to live in?
The UK government does not keep central statistics on homelessness for various reasons, including the fact that homelessness is recorded in different ways across the different nations. Figures nevertheless show that in 2014, there were 1.37 million households waiting for a home, up 26% from 2000. In England, there are 64,710 households living in temporary accommodation – an 11% rise on last year’s figure and up 26% since 2010. Among those numbers are 93,320 children. 7,500 people were recorded as sleeping on the streets of London last year. The real number is undoubtedly much higher.
London’s housing crisis affects everyone who is not a millionaire, from young professionals trying to get on the housing ladder to hotel workers forced to live in sheds by slum landlords. But on Saturday 12th September 2015, some saw a glimmer of hope in the election of Jeremy Corbyn MP as leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. In his first speech as leader of the Labour Party, using powerful words, Corbyn committed to work with Sadiq Khan, Labour’s mayoral candidate to end the ‘social cleansing’ associated with the housing crisis. "I am fed up with the social cleansing of London by this Tory government and its policies," Corbyn said.
