‘I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased by selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the English bourgeoisie … Ultimately it is self-interest, and especially money gain, which alone determines them. I once went into Manchester with such a bourgeois, and spoke to him of the bad, unwholesome method of building, the frightful condition of the working-people’s quarters, and asserted that I had never seen so ill-built a city. The man listened quietly to the end and said at the corner where we parted: “And yet there is a great deal of money made here, good morning, sir.”’
Frederick Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1845
On every measure, the housing crisis in Britain is intensifying. Figures published by Shelter in December show that the number of homeless people in England in 2019 was the highest since it began keeping records at 280,000 people, with rough sleeping in Britain up 165% since 2010.1 Around 5,000 people in Britain are out sleeping rough on any one night. 135,000 children are homeless – the highest figure in 12 years – with one child becoming homeless every eight minutes. The number of households living in temporary accommodation is up 77% on 2010. The housing charity Crisis estimates that an additional homeless 71,400 individuals and families are ‘sofa-surfing’ – sleeping on a floor or sofa with friends or relatives – on any given night.2 These are figures to shame any nation, let alone one counted as among the richest in the world.
Yet, for the new Conservative government, this housing crisis, which affects the poorest and most vulnerable in society, seems invisible. Prime Minister Boris Johnson made no mention of housing in his election campaign, promising only to restore the Conservatives as ‘the party of homeowners’. Just a week before the election, on 5 December 2019, his chancellor Sajid Javid went on Sky News to blatantly lie that the Tories had cut homelessness by half. The reality is that since 2009, under Coalition and Conservative governments, homelessness overall has risen 39% even on the narrow definition of statutory homelessness (which does not give a full picture): in 2009 this was calculated at 42,000 people. But why should the ruling class care, when there is after all ‘a great deal of money’ to be made here?
Profiting from slums
Shelter’s figures show that across England one person in every 200 is without a home. In London, the figure rises to one in 52, with homeless highest in Newham (1 in 24) and the capital’s richest borough, Kensington and Chelsea (1 in 29). For children, the figures are even more shocking: in Kensington & Chelsea, Haringey, Westminster and Newham, one in every 12 children is homeless; in Manchester the figure is one in every 47. There is an average of five homeless children for every classroom in England.
These figures – testimony to the searing individual human cost of the housing crisis – are driven by austerity, the failure of housing benefits to cover soaring rents, landlords refusing to accept tenants on benefits and delays in receiving benefits, including Universal Credit.
The most visible effect of the crisis is seen on the streets of the country’s major cities, but rough sleeping is only the extreme tip of the iceberg. There are also thousands of so-called ‘hidden homeless’, forced into what Crisis describes as the damaging ‘permanent impermanence’ of sofa surfing, many for months or even years at a time. But the majority of homeless households, especially those with children, are shunted into temporary accommodation that is largely not fit for purpose. In the first quarter of 2019 there were 84,740 households, including 126,020 children, housed in this way. As FRFI has regularly reported, temporary housing is the new slum accommodation: overcrowded, cramped, infested with vermin, wracked with damp and mould, with broken and dangerous furniture and fixtures. Much of it is in B&Bs, converted offices, repurposed derelict buildings and even shipping containers. Yet, scandalously, private companies continue to rake in millions of pounds by renting these slums out to councils.
An Observer investigation in October 2019 showed how in what it called England’s ‘top 50 homeless blackspots’, a £215m industry had developed, with 156 of the largest management companies receiving an average £10,000 from the council per booking. In Newham, Donald Hunter House, a former BT building managed by Theori, one of the largest providers of temporary housing, has a contract with the council worth £6.9m. Those with little choice but to live in its housing units complain of cockroaches, mould and stairwells where other residents take drugs, vomit and defecate. The owner of a number of similar hostels in Hackney, Blue Chip Trading Limited, says business is so good it plans to build a new, 11-storey, 292-room hostel nearby and charge the council £256 per homeless household per night. Property management company Finefair promises investors it can turn their properties into ‘high-yielding’ homes of multi-occupation or hostels with increased ‘potential for profit’. Its CEO lives in a five-bedroom gated house near Epping Forest worth £2m. The immiseration of the poorest sections of the working class provides a source of seemingly boundless wealth for the unscrupulous.
Profiting from palaces
At the same time, the insatiable drive for profits continues to fuel a growth in luxury homes. In January, a seven-storey townhouse near Hyde Park in London sold for more than £200m to an international buyer, making it the most expensive house ever sold in England. Estate agents say multi-million property deals are up following Boris Johnson’s election victory, as the obscenely wealthy are reassured that their assets will remain safe investments in Brexit Britain. Luxury brands like Bulgari and Versace are getting in on the act as they flog their branded residences to the world’s ultra-high net worth individuals and corporations. Forbes estimates that branded residences attract a 35% premium over the unbranded variety. After all, if it works for sunglasses and trainers, why not for what are, literally, gilded palaces? A £39m Bulgari apartment in London’s Knightsbridge comes complete with access to a ‘vitality pool’ whose walls are entirely covered with gold leaf tiles (FT, 25/26 January 2020).
Cat Wiener
1. This is England: a picture of homelessness in 2019, Shelter, December 2019
2. ‘It was like a nightmare’: the realities of sofa-surfing, Crisis, December 2019
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 274, February/March 2020
