Turning Simmering Anger into Social Action

shacaction

10 months ago

A single day in May has again thrown social housing into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. A damning report has been published on rising disrepairs complaints, and the media reports the death of a baby in a decaying home owned by a housing association.

On Thursday, the Housing Ombudsman published a new report which investigated over 3,000 pieces of evidence and found a 474% increase in complaints concerning substandard living conditions between 2019-20 to 2024-25. Around two-thirds of the cases featured poor practice by social landlords.

On the same day, the immense tragedy of baby Akram Mohammed’s death in an unfit home also hit the headlines. Akram’s untimely death was reported by ITV’s Daniel Hewitt, who said:

“The family of a 15-week-old baby who died after living in a damp, mould-ridden housing association flat say they believe the conditions contributed to his death … The walls and ceiling [of his home] were covered in black mould and the property smelled of damp”.

The family reported the conditions multiple times to their landlord, Notting Hill Genesis, a housing association established in the wake of Peter Rachman’s brutal slum landlordism of the 1960s, which has now turned itself into a provider of slum housing.

ITV: Family Say Mould Contributed to Baby’s Death as Housing Complaints Soar in England

Akram’s father said “We complained, and complained, but nothing happened … We were crying out for help, but nobody hears”. The day after Akram’s death, the family were moved into suitable accommodation – an option that had been available all along.

Something Has to Give

The Ombudsman headlined with a warning that “simmering anger” amongst tenants and residents risked “social disquiet” and called for the creation of a national body to create a resident voice.

But tenants and residents do not need a voice: they need the power to hold their landlords and politicians to account. This cannot happen without collective organisation. These necessities have driven SHAC’s work on both social action and the formation of a national tenants and residents union.

Tenants and Residents Strike for Housing Justice

SHAC is supporting hundreds of groups who are collectively withholding payment over disrepairs, extortionate service charges, ASB and other problems. This tactic is currently the most radical available to tenants and residents when they have exhausted mainstream options and are locked in a losing battle with their landlord.

Most importantly, SHAC has long recognised that increasing levels of slum landlordism, just one face of the UK’s housing crisis, will not change until there is a powerful national body that can hold landlords to account. That’s why it launched a project to develop a national tenants and residents union (NTRU) earlier this year.

Unlike the Ombudsman, SHAC does not believe that an NTRU should be funded or controlled by government. This has been tried several times previously. Statistics and media reports alike have demonstrated that they fail to deliver sufficient improvement.

While such bodies have carried out some useful work, they are immediately recognised by tenants and residents as a device to provide a pressure valve for their anger while carefully maintaining the status quo. None have sought to fundamentally alter the balance of power between tenants and landlords.

Self-Sufficient Solutions

Instead, SHAC plans an NTRU which is largely self-funding and supported by the trade union movement. It is also firmly committed to ensuring that decision-making structures mirror the self-determination and democracy of trade unions.

While government points to the work of housing watchdogs as the best way of regulating landlord behaviour and driving improvement, it is clear that housing conditions and the treatment of tenants are in sharp decline. The medicine’s not working, and we have to search for a more effective alternative. Tenants and residents have given up waiting for government to ride to the rescue. They are getting organised so that they can create their own solution.

The NTRU project has a growing list of supporters. It is currently sponsored by 11 housing campaign groups, and 46 local tenants and residents associations. It aims to hold a conference in the Autumn to bring all interested parties together.