The Way Home: A Manifesto to Rebuild Our Broken Housing System

Home is our country’s foundation. When we live in a safe, secure and affordable home, it supports our health, wellbeing and provides us with the solid base we need to thrive in life. That’s why it’s essential for everyone to be able to access and afford a decent home. But currently one in three of us don’t have a safe place to call home.

This manifesto has been created with 75 people from across the country, from rural and coastal towns to urban centres. People who are homeless and trapped in temporary accommodation waiting for a social home. People who are scared to complain to their landlord about damp and mould affecting their physical health because they’re scared of being evicted. People who are being crushed by the weight of unfair rent increases. People who represent the 17.5 million across the country trapped by the housing emergency.

We have listened to them and have heard their experiences of how our broken housing system is impacting communities across the country. This manifesto is the outcome of that work – a plan for ending the housing emergency, outlining what people across England are demanding from our country’s next government. People want a housing system that provides safe, secure, and genuinely affordable homes. A housing system that ensures people’s good health and wellbeing, instead of damaging it. They want to see a new generation of social rent homes and strong rights for renters.

The next government are responsible for rebuilding our housing system. Political parties can only consider themselves ready to govern the country if they are willing to commit to tackling the housing emergency head-on. Our country’s leaders must be held to account, they must listen, and they must act. This starts with our manifesto to end the housing emergency