Content
Introduction
Part 1: England (2024)
Part 2: An action - A Bedroom for Everyone
Part 3: · Resources
This booklet has been compiled by For Solidarity project manager Hannah Kirkham and is part of For Solidarity, an ongoing programme within The NewBridge Project, to share learnings about solidarity economies and to help grow a peer support network of grassroots organisations, projects, initiatives and individuals in the North East who are offering alternatives to the extractive mainstream economic system. Our belief is that we are stronger together.
Introduction
Between January and March 2024, a series of workshops that focused on housing and community action took place at The NewBridge Project, an artist-led organisation based in Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne.The workshops were inspired by the animation A Bedroom for Everyone by filmmaker Ed Webb-Ingall.
The workshops were developed by community organisers Elgan John and Safiah Fardin with NewBridge’s For Solidarity Project Manager, Hannah Kirkham.
Held in Shieldfield, an area with a diverse housing landscape ranging from social housing and temporary accommodation to student rentals, private housing and a housing cooperative established in 1979, the workshops sought to explore the intersection of housing, community action and creative practice.
This booklet has been made to share the ideas and conversations that shaped the workshops and to offer practical ways to get involved in housing actions.
Illustrator and NewBridge studio holder Jim Spendlove produced a series of illustrations to harvest the shared knowledge and experiences from the sessions. Some of these images are presented here alongside photographic documentation and posters cocreated in one of the workshops.
Part 1: Setting the sceneEngland (2024)
Elgan John is a community organiser based in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2020 he was part of a group of residents in the inner West End of Newcastle, who set up Food and Solidarity, a democratic membership organisation. The group uses direct action to address immediate needs in the neighbourhoods of its members’, [FS1] and to bring about long-term change around food insecurity, child poverty and housing justice. In 2024 Elgan helped plan and deliver the three workshops that inspired this booklet. Here, Elgan outlines some of the key issues that have shaped the housing landscape in England.
* At the time of writing, this includes: Arthurs Hill, Benwell, Cowgate and Elswick.
: When we talk about the housing landscape in England, we talk about being in a housing crisis. How have we got to this point?
Elgan John (EJ): If you want to look at the housing landscape in England, there are three main things that frame it all: the introduction by the government of Right to Buy and Section 21 ‘no-fault evictions’ in the 1980s, and the 2007 Global Economic Crisis.
: Can you explain a bit more about Right to Buy?
EJ: Right to Buy was a piece of legislation that allowed people living in social housing to buy their home at a discounted rate. The idea was to change the class structure of the UK, so you’d move more people from working class, who were thinking about organised labour and collective action, to a position where they were more individualised petty bourgeoisie, so they were more concerned about their own situation in terms of owning a house, or renting out a house, or buying a house to rent out. Whether the Conservative government articulated it in that way, I don’t know; but that is what I think that project was about and what the Thatcher government was thinking of doing when she (Margaret Thatcher) was doing that - the idea of destroying the heart of the labour movement. (Because) it changes your relationship to capital, and it also changes your relationship to how you think about politics and how you vote.
: What impact has that had?
EJ: There has been a massive decrease in social housing. Something like close to 50% of former council houses are now in the Private Rental Sector (PRS). That represents a massive transfer of public resources into private hands. Also, the proportion of people in England who own their own home or are in the process of buying their own home through mortgages is high; it’s the majority of people. It’s stayed consistent at 60% since the 1980s but this increased during the 1980s from around 50% to nearer 70% following the introduction of Right to Buy.
: I didn’t realise Section 21 came in at the same time as Right to Buy…
EJ: Yeah, Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’ were also introduced in the late 1980s and were explicitly created to incentivise Buy-to-Let landlordism. It was decided Buy-to-Let wasn’t attractive enough as a prospect, so this was created to keep housing in the private sector so the state wouldn’t have to provide housing for people.
: What effect did the Global Economic Crisis in 2007 have?
EJ: After the 2007 Global Economic Crisis the proportion of people buying with a mortgage decreased massively and private renting increased.
: So at that point in 2007, people couldn’t get on the housing ladder…
EJ: Yeah, as people aren’t able to get on the housing ladder, they are going into private rentals. Today, most people renting property (close to 40% of the population) are now more likely to be living in the PRS than social housing.
And this is important because the PRS is the least decent and least safe type of housing. If you look at the non-decent homes rate, the PRS is consistently outperforming in being non-decent (meaning not being good). You can see the same trend with Category 1 Health Hazards; these are houses that are dangerous to live in, and those in the PRS are the worst. In 2011 a quarter of the PRS have a Category 1 health hazard, which has decreased to today’s figure which is about a sixth.
As we’ve seen the PRS grow, a lot of local authorities have introduced additional licensing that requires landlords to demonstrate they have done certain things. It’s not perfect by any rate but it has led to improvements. Social housing on the other hand, is a lot more secure and the best in terms of being a decent place to live.
: Can you talk a bit about temporary accommodation and asylum accommodation?
EJ: Temporary accommodation…so if you talk of eviction and lack - about the lack of social housing - the UK struggles to house people who have been evicted or made homeless for other reasons (although section 21 is the main way people become homeless). So what happens when you don’t have places to put people is you have to put them in temporary accommodation. Less social housing, huge rents and nofault evictions has meant the number of people in temporary accommodation is the highest it has ever been. You go to some schools in some boroughs in London and every child is living in temporary accommodation. You have fewer rights, and you can be moved or thrown out with very little notice.
Then we have asylum accommodation which is private companies having a home office contract to provide housing to asylum seekers in a certain area. They often don’t own property themselves so have relationships with local landlords. The idea is that the companies do all the maintenance and compliance for those properties and landlords don’t have to do anything. It’s very easy money for landlords if they’re happy for their properties to be neglected…
: Does this mean public money is going into the pockets of private landlords and companies?
EJ:It can do yeah. In Newcastle it is a bit different. Temporary accommodation is run by a service provider (a series of charities). It’s not great -the competitive process for local authority contracts is still designed, in part, to drive down operational costs and prioritise organisational income - but no one’s creaming off profit from that. However, in other towns and cities, a huge number of temporary accommodation properties are B&Bs and old hotels. It’s often more expensive, so in those instances that’s just profit going into someone’s pockets.
: How does this impact the relationship between local authorities and landlords?
EJ: The local authority is supposed to be regulating the PRS, but I think they’re massively disincentivised to do this because they need to keep good relationships with landlords. Because there isn’t the social housing to deal with what happens when people get evicted into homelessness and local authorities want to avoid using temporary accommodation, they are incentivising landlords to take on tenants who are at risk of homelessness. That can include taking on the deposits – so the council will sign an agreement where they will cover any losses to properties in lieu of a deposit and the first month’s rent. Again, this is our council tax money going directly into profit…This is what deregulation looks like, this is what letting the private sector take over looks like.
: Is all of this connected to Councils not being able to afford to build more council housing?
EJ: Not really. Temporary accommodation is expensive for some councils, particularly in London, but the main issue is Right to Buy. Local Authorities don’t want to put money into new developments for them to be bought at a discount and sold into the private sector. I think ending Right to Buy and investing in a big infrastructure project to build genuine, accessible council housing would end quite a lot of these problems. The potential issue is that it might reduce house prices which people have vested interests in.
Part 2: An actionA Bedroom for Everyone
Conversation between Ed Webb-Ingall
A Bedroom for Everyone (15 min) by filmmaker Ed Webb-Ingall is an animation made from 2019 to 2023. Following time spent with housing and migrant-support groups from across the UK, Ed collaborated with members of these groups to co-write the script. In the animation four strangers meet at a housing demonstration and talk about the issues they face them and the community action that has helped them. The animation was illustrated by Sofia Niazi and animated by Astrid Goldsmith.
The animation was screened at the NewBridge Project in early 2024, providing a way to open up conversations about housing and housing struggles in neighbourhoods across the North East.
Over the following pages is an extract from a conversation between Ed WebbIngall and journalist Kieran Yates at Peer Gallery, London, on 20 March 2024. The conversation gives an insight into the motivations behind the making of this work.
: Can you talk us through the work, A Bedroom for Everyone?
Ed Webb-Ingall (EWI): So there’s a long journey to this… Two things happened at once - one was that I co-founded the London Community Video Archive which is an archive of community videos made between 1969 and 1987 and a lot of that work (shows) ways in which videos have been used in housing struggles. So I started to ask this question as a filmmaker - what would those videos look like now? What would they be doing? How would they be useful and how could I be useful in that way? At the same time, I was living in Elephant and Castle (in London), watching it dramatically change – all these tower blocks going up – and I found out about this group called HASL (Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth) who run a peer support group, supporting people through case work.
I joined that group, and I started to be part of that group - learning about the running (of it) and getting involved with case work, and (I was) kind of out of my depth. I went to the first five meetings, and I didn’t really know what to do. It felt really awkward, but I knew what they were doing was important and I was trying to be useful, and over time I learned how to be useful (by) making notes, doing bits of casework, filling in forms and drafting emails.
One of the big things I wanted to show (through A Bedroom for Everyone) was what happens in those (activist) spaces behind closed doors. Because it can be quite intimidating before you go to one of those
meetings, to know what to expect. That felt important to me because as much as I love activist spaces, I also know how awkward they can be.
As much as I wanted to tell personal stories, I didn’t want it to be about individuals – these people are purposefully representative of a collective experience. So the renter’s union person was written by four people all together feeding in, which is why it often feels overwhelming with information because they are often speaking on behalf of a group of people…So they are figures that represent bigger problems.
I made this film because I think it’s so important to build solidarity across movements and to understand these struggles are shared but also different…I hope it does that… And I wanted to make something from a place of hope and a place of what’s possible within such a hard and difficult moment.
Part 3: Alternative housing models - 151 Study
Safiah Fardin is a community organiser and member of the 151 Housing Cooperative in Newcastle upon Tyne. The cooperative came from a communal home (with the house number 151) which started in the 1990’s in the West End of the city. In 2024 the current tenants were evicted from the house that had been home to many people for the past 30 years. The 151 Housing Cooperative is still active and is in the process of identifying and buying a home for some of its members. Here Safiah, who also helped plan and deliver the three workshops that inspired this booklet, tells us more about the cooperative and the journey they are on.
: Who is the 151 Housing Cooperative?
: We are 11 members, a diverse group of people that love the North East and work, play and make in Newcastle. Not everyone in the 151 Housing Cooperative wants to live in the cooperative and are instead driven by there being more cooperative housing in the city.
: Can you tell me a little bit about the background to the 151 Housing Cooperative?
: 151 Housing Cooperative came from a communal home started in the 1990’s. This evolved into an intentional community, where people of shared values chose to live out their values together. For 151 this was to have daily communal meals, ethically sourced and communally owned food, community engagement, and to offer respite to those who needed it. The coming together of likeminded people and an affordable rent allowed the tenants to explore creative and social projects.
Over time, the ethos of the house remained, but an absentee landlord meant that tenants realised the property was unsustainable and precarious, so conversations started to be had about the long-term plans for the 151 community. In 2019 151 Housing Cooperative became officially registered with the intention to buy a home collectively. In 2020, we became members of Radical Routes, which is a secondary cooperative that supports housing coops whether that’s financially through loans, or through access to knowledge and resources.
: What are the aims of 151 Housing Cooperative?
: 151 Housing Cooperative will be a communally focused, fully mutual, par value cooperative, providing housing to its members. The fully mutual par value bit basically means that it’s owned and democratically run by its members, not for profit.
We envision the 151 Housing Cooperative buying a house for four to six people. The house will be mixed-gendered, intergenerational, embracing folks from all walks of life, centring equity and allowing members to thrive. The living style within the house will have a strong communal focus, involving shared cooking responsibilities, meals, resources and - skills. Decisions will be made through consensus decision making. Furthermore, it will aim to foster a supportive and caring environment and look outwards to its wider community.
: How are you setting this up? Could you tell me about the financial roadmap?
: We are scoping for six-bedroom houses in the West End of Newcastle and are focused on raising funds for a deposit, getting a mortgage and start-up costs. To buy a house as a cooperative, you need a group of members and a business plan. Our financial roadmap includes securing a mortgage from a bank (like the Ecological Building Society), a loan from Radical Routes, crowdfunding and ethical investment from loan stock - which is individuals and groups who want to support communityled housing and will provide loans at a lower rate of interest than a bank.
We’ve split up into working groups to write our business plan, fundraise and research. A few of us are working on a crowdfunder to help raise money for the start-up costs of our project.
: Why have you chosen a cooperative housing model?
: We know that social housing is the solution to the housing crisis, however this doesn’t seem to be on the national or regional political agenda, so setting up as a housing cooperative gives us the freedom from renting from a landlord and control over our housing.
We’ve chosen a cooperative housing model that is a par value fully mutual coop. This means that no individual owns or profits from being involved, the property remains in common ownership from generation
to generation and if the cooperative is dissolved, the assets must be passed to another cooperative or to a not-for-profit with similar aims and principles. The fully mutual bit means all members have an equal say in how the cooperative is run and the direction we work towards.
: What advice would you give to a group of people wanting to set up their own housing cooperative?
: We’re still learning and very much in the stage of trying to buy a house for our cooperative. Some important tips that we have learned along the way are:
• Plan out and think things through, but don’t overthink, just get on with it. You’ll figure things out as you go.
• Try to spread knowledge across your group so that not too much knowledge is held up by a small few.
• It’s important to have a diverse range of skills, opinions and ideas in your group.
• Address conflict calmly and maturely and don’t forget the bigger picture.
Resources
A Bedroom for Everyone is available to use as a resource to share with anyone interested or engaged in housing struggles. If you would like to show this film in your community setting, please contact Grand Union Gallery at info@grand-union. org.uk. The animation is available in four languages: Arabic, English, Polish and Spanish.
Citizens Advice https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/
https://foodandsolidarity.org/
https://newbridge.solidarityeconomy.coop/
https://housingactionsouthwarkandlambeth. wordpress.com/about/ https://the-lcva.co.uk/
Radical Routes
https://www.radicalroutes.org.uk/
https://thenewbridgeproject.com/
Shelter
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice
https://www.facebook.com/151HousingCooperative https://www.instagram.com/151sidneygrove/
About
A Bedroom for Everyone (15min) is an animation by filmmaker Ed Webb-Ingall, made from 2019 to 2023 with housing activists across the UK, illustrator Sofia Niazi, and animator Astrid Goldsmith. It is rooted in the idea that art can be a tool for social change, but only when embedded within communities, with and for them.
It was commissioned by Grand Union and generously supported by Oak Foundation, Arts Council England, Serpentine Galleries, ArtFund and University of Birmingham.
Ed Webb-Ingall is a filmmaker and researcher working with archival materials and methodologies drawn from community video. He collaborates with groups to explore under-represented historical moments and their relationship to contemporary life, developing modes of self-representation specific to the subject or the experiences of the participants.
Elgan John has several years experience in community organising, particularly in housing. This was built on two decades of experience in the voluntary sector. He was a founding member of the mutual aid groups in the West End of Newcastle and a founding member of Food and Solidarity. He is a trade unionist and works for a campaigning disability charity.
is a non-profit, democratic, member-led and run organisation based in Newcastle upon Tyne. We utilise direct action to improve the material conditions of our members. We work in areas including housing, food, immigration and social services.
is an ongoing project to share learnings about solidarity economies and to help grow a peer support network of grassroots organisations, projects, initiatives and individuals in the North East who are offering alternatives to the extractive mainstream economic system. Our belief is that we are stronger together.
The project was initiated in 2019 by The NewBridge Project and the Solidarity Economy Association.
is a community organiser who is passionate about how we can build power to organise for change so we can tackle the challenges of our time and build just, thriving and equitable societies. She works for a nursing union, is excited about social housing and fighting rogue landlords (as a member of Food and Solidarity!) and is part of the 151 Housing Cooperative.
is an artist-led organisation based in Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne. We support artists and communities through a programme of activity, studio space and community resources. Our work is shaped in response to the needs and interests of artists, communities locally and further afield.
