Why homes must be at the heart of our country’s future

In those first days of the spring lockdown I couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky I was to have a place to be where I felt safe. My my partner and I were both able to work uninterrupted (thanks to our sympathetic employers), and we had somewhere to isolate and recover if we needed to.

But far too many people were denied that peace of mind. Perhaps they were living with friends/relatives or in other shared and/or temporary accommodation, maybe even with strangers. Maybe their homes were too cramped to work and also educate and entertain children in. They may or may not have been in affordable housing to start with, but furloughing and redundancy added to worries about meeting financial commitments. And then there were those individuals who were sleeping rough and housed, albeit temporarily for many, under the ‘Everybody In’ scheme. Many of these problems existed before COVID-19 arrived, but the pandemic and the lockdown amplified them.

Now in England, we’re in the midst of a second lockdown. Only this one feels even worse. It’s cold and it’s dark. People will now be trying to cope with no heating, inadequate heating, or heating they just can’t afford to use. Research by the Northern Housing Consortium, the Nationwide Foundation and the University of Huddersfield - Lockdown. Rundown. Breakdown. - highlighted the very real struggles people faced in homes which were hard to heat, cold, in poor condition and cramped. And this was in the warmer months of the year.

We can do so much better than this. That’s why CIH joined the National Housing Federation, Crisis, the National Federation of ALMOs and the Association of Retained Council Housing to launch Homes at the Heart, a national campaign with backing from 60 supporting organisations to call for a once in a generation investment in social housing.

Investing in social housing will give the economy a much-needed boost, create jobs and improve people’s lives when our nation needs it most. Analysis by the Centre for Economic and Business Research on behalf of the National Housing Federation (NHF) shows that building 90,000 new social homes a year would add £4.8bn to the national economy and support 86,000 jobs. The Prime Minister has spoken about a ‘green recovery’. We think this should include investing in retrofitting for existing homes to raise their energy efficiency and make their power and heating sources renewable, and building new homes that are ‘net zero carbon’ and, if possible, that generate energy. Not only will this stimulate the economy and create jobs – it will give people homes they can afford to heat.

Everyone deserves a safe, secure, comfortable place to call home. Not just now, in the middle of this crisis, but always. So we really must put #HomesAtTheHeart of our country’s future.