Nigel Farage and Reform UK’s proposed housing policy changes are deeply racist and demonstrate a staggering level of ignorance on the state of housing and how to resolve it. Their housing plans will also seriously affect disabled and vulnerable people.
Shamefully both Labour and the Tories, rather than acknowledge the contribution of ‘foreign nationals’ are riding on the tailcoats of Reform UK preferring to wash over their own governments’ historic responsibilities for the housing crisis. Blaming ‘foreign nationals’ just continues the scapegoating of refugees and migrants that has led to so much division and the growth of racism.
It’s crucial to end the scapegoating that is dividing our communities and provide people with a real chance of a decent home.
We have updated our leaflet ‘Migrants and refugees don’t cause the housing crisis!‘ so the housing movement can understand and respond to the myths being pushed by the far right and mainstream political discourse.
Burnham’s backtracking on council house builds and the funding share from the Affordable Housing Programme shows no real radical break from Starmer’s housing policies. The protest is a real opportunity to highlight this and bring us together and hear from housing campaigns and supporters.
We’ve got a new Prime Minister who is promising to tackle homelessness, but ruling out rent controls, who says we need more social housing but doesn’t have a credible plan. We need a new generation of social rent council homes that include family-sized and accessible homes, designed to meet climate emergency challenges. And right now, we need rent controls to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Read more from the Labour Campaign for Council Housing on the real figures proposed for council housing:
73,000 homes for “strategic partners” but just 3.8% are council homes
The government has announced the first tranche of funding for its Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026-36, for “Strategic Partners”.
There has been much hyperbole and misinformation accompanying the announcement of the first funding for the government’s Social & Affordable Homes Programme. The official Labour Party Twitter account said that “Labour is funding more than 70,000 new homes across England, putting councils at the heart of house building.” Another said “This is the biggest council house building revival in decades”. Others such as Labour Future, not bothering to check, have talked of “Labour’s plan to build 70,000 council homes”. Alas, the reality is far different.
The Aylesham Centre planning application was REFUSED!
Berkeley Group failed to get their gentrification scheme through. In a David and Goliath struggle the people of Peckham first pressured Southwark Council to refuse the scheme, then took the fight to the Planning Inspector and won.
Homes for All was proud to support the SHAPE campaign from the start.
The main reason for victory?
Unity, organised and demonstrated – repeatedly – on a mass scale. Six years of sustained pressure by ACA and SHAPE Coalition set up in 2024 to take the fight to the streets.
A demonstration of 600 in 2025, public meetings, benefit gigs, protests, 5,000 objections, a colossal fundraising effort. A campaign capturing the support of 21 Southwark organisations and inspiring many others.
The fundraise meant the campaign could pay for an excellent barrister and ACA was granted “Rule 6” status, meaning they could intervene effectively in the Inquiry.
Unite and fight, always.
The refusal The biggest issue for local people was the insulting offer of 12% so-called affordable housing (no council housing on the table at all btw). But there were so many other things wrong with the proposed development that the Inspector wouldn’t have approved it even if the amount of affordable housing had been 35%.
Here’s some of the things the inspector said about the scheme: “it would rise cliff-like in the townscape” “It would tower over its setting” “an unduly forceful presence on the street scene” “The blocks would be out of scale, visually intrusive” “overly domineering”
And so on…
This massive overdevelopment was disrespectful to the people of Peckham, and our local traders and environment. It was not right for Peckham. It put profit before people.
Developer’s next move? Berkeley Group say they will look at the decision carefully to plan their next steps. They may try to get the decision overturned by a “288 challenge” (similar to a judicial review) or of course, they good re-submit a planning application. Painting themselves as the victims of the piece, they recognise the decision has repercussions elsewhere and are claiming developers will stop ‘investing’ in London now.
Telegraph article Legal row looms after 800 new London homes blocked Southwark News article Aylesham Centre redevelopment rejected – it would have changed Peckham’s skyline forever and given 12 per cent affordable housing Urban Activist article How Local People Prevailed Over a Major Developer in London – in Six Questions
Whatever happens next, SHAPE Coalition will be ready to take up the fight again for the Peckham, Southwark and working class communities everywhere.
We supported around 200 Housing and community activists from a range of groups including SHAPE Coalition and Save Old Kent Road. We marched down The Old Kent Road 25 April 2026. The area is under threat from overdevelopment and the erasure of local traders – including many from the global majority – and vital cultural spaces.
We want 100% council housing on council land, 50% council housing on private land. The Old Kent Road Area Action Plan does not prioritise council housing or local communities. It is a developers’ charter.
Speakers on the demonstration included Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, PCS SELLS Branch, Latin Elephant, Stand up to Racism, Aylesham Community Action and Southwark Acorn.
Local people are calling for: 🔥Homes for people not for profit 🔥Council housing, not luxury flats 🔥Stop overdevelopment 🔥Protect local traders and cultural spaces
The next protest will be outside Southwark Council’s offices:
SHAPE Morning protest outside start of Old Kent Road Area Action Plan Examination in Public Tuesday 9 June, 9am to 10am @ Council Offices, 160 Tooley St, SE1 2TZ The Examination in Public is where the Council brings their plan to the Planning Inspector who will approve or reject it. Supporters of the Plan and objectors will have a chance to speak. We will be outside in support of objectors to show the Council that the community won’t accept more social cleansing. Please check details before you come in case of any changes. https://www.ayleshamcommunityaction.co.uk/SHAPE
Stop Social cleansing! Demonstration Saturday 25 April March down Old Kent Road! Assemble 12pm, Michael Faraday Memorial (opp. Elephant & Castle Tube, Northern Line entrance)
Save Old Kent Road and SHAPE Coalition helped to organise the planning bloc on the successful National Housing Demonstration on 18 April and they are planning the Save Old Kent Road demonstration on 25 April. Homes for All urges all housing and planning campaigners to join them. They are on the frontline of the developer-led destruction of communities, and they have a record of holding local politicians to account.
Bus down Old Kent Road SHAPE and Save OKR hired an old London Bus to tour Old Kent Road demanding Southwark Council alter the Old Kent Road Area Action Plan and increase the amount of social rented housing and protect local businesses and traders. They are urging Councillors to support changes to benefit local people before the plan goes to Examination in Public in June.
The current plan amounts to social cleansing – with 20,000 new homes, but only 5,000 social rented, maximum. The second half of the 20,000 homes is dependent on the Bakerloo Line Extension, but the funding for that is not yet secured. There is no commitment on the number of new council homes and a dozen towers of over 20 storeys are going to be mostly not affordable, with an unlimited amount of student housing.
Campaigners are also concerned about the lack of protection for well-loved cultural spaces and the removal of industrial land and traders – to be replaced by flats.
The plan could end up pushing more working-class people out of the area.
Save Old Kent Road said: “In 2021, Southwark Council themselves found that 93% of people in Southwark require either social or affordable housing. Since then, things have only got worse. There are now over 22,000 households on Southwark Council’s social housing waiting list and over 10,000 people in Southwark Council temporary accommodation. The need for genuinely affordable council housing around the Old Kent Road is extreme, but all Southwark Council have done is hand over a cheque to developers and asked them to fill in the number. The Old Kent Road ward is the most ethnically diverse in Southwark. Instead of investing into the health of our communities, Southwark Council wants to force us out and bring in full-scale gentrification.”
SHAPE Coalition said: We believe Southwark Council can do better. It is time to start challenging the rule of developers, as they were forced to do with the Aylesham Centre Peckham planning application, which they refused because it only proposed 12% so-called affordable housing. We have to stand together against overdevelopment of homes local people can’t afford. We are demanding homes for people, not for profit, and protection for vital local traders and cultural spaces.”
Joint demands include: • Homes for people not for profit • Council housing, not luxury flats • Stop overdevelopment • Protect local traders and cultural spaces
Thousands marched in Central London for council housing and rent controls
The National Housing Demonstration in Central London on 18 April showed the potential to unite the many housing campaigns to demand real solutions to the housing and planning emergency. Saturday’s demonstration was biggest unity demo since people came together on the Kill the Housing Bill demo in 2016.
Homes for All was proud to be part of the organising, alongside the London Renters Union in the coalition under the Homes for Us banner.
The demo was backed by over 80 other tenants’ unions, trade unions and grassroots campaigns. There were five coaches from cities across the country and activists travelled from as far away as Newcastle and Portsmouth.
Supporters of Homes for All demanded a massive programme of council housing – including taking over empty homes – and the Planning Bloc organised by SHAPE Coalition demanded “Planning for People, Not for Profit”.
“I’m here today because as a mother, grandmother and working class person who’s been fortunate enough to benefit from council housing, I fear there won’t be affordable housing for future generations.” Molly, Homes for All organiser
Tanya from SHAPE Coalition urged people to attend the demonstration down the Old Kent Road on Saturday 25 April.
“We are facing a housing emergency and instead of making the planning system work for ordinary people, the Labour government and the Mayor of London are handing more power and public money to developers. The Mayor of London has just approved the giant Canada Water development – where the developer British Land reduced the amount of affordable housing from 35% to 3%. That’s what happens when politicians decide to work within the system, instead of challenging the system.”
Media round-up
Standard article Housing a basic need, not an investment vehicle – Zarah Sultana
National Housing Demonstration – Assemble 1pm, Saturday 18 April, Soho Square Gardens, London W1D 3QP
Homes for All is backing the protest in Central London on Saturday 18 April.
Over 60 trade unions, tenants’ groups and politicians have backed the demo demanding urgent rent controls and a new generation of accessible council homes. We are also fighting for a planning system that delivers for local communities and the environment not developer profit, and safe, secure homes so the Grenfell disaster can never happen again.
Asking rents for private tenants have risen by 44 per cent since the pandemic, while social rents and service charges continue to climb. About one in three renters now struggles to afford essentials like food and heating, and 330,000 households are currently facing homelessness.
“Politicians have forgotten the housing crisis, but people haven’t. Housing is right at the heart of the real struggles faced by so many communities around the UK. Join this demo to remind them that we need genuine answers – not just more measures to boost private profits or scapegoating immigrants.” Peter Apps, Author and Journalist
Martin Wicks of Defend Council Housing said:“The government’s strategy of planning liberalisation and reliance on the large volume private builders is doomed to fail. Social rent council housing is the key to resolving the housing crisis.”
Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, who is supporting the action, said: “We must continue to campaign for a mass social housing programme and for private rent controls. More than 250,000 people are homeless in the UK, which is a national scandal. Housing should be a right for everyone – let’s reclaim housing as a public good for everyone.”
Government should use genuine ‘brownfield’ sites and empty homes for new housing not green spaces or green belt.
Communities must be central to local decision-making in planning.
We have to stop unaffordable housing in unsustainable developments, ruining established neighbourhoods, communities, heritage, local businesses and green spaces.
We joined the Stand up to Racism counter demonstration 13 Dec 2025
Migrants didn’t cause the housing emergency!
We supported Stand up to Racism, Care for Calais and church groups to oppose the ‘choir service’ organised by Tommy Robinson. We are appalled that he and his far right supporters attempted to hijack Christmas to spread their message of hate.
We loved the moving and inspiring songs by Billy Bragg – especially the new one channelling Woody Guthrie.
Homes for All discussed the government’s social and affordable homes programme.
Martin Wicks from Labour Campaign for Council Housing introduced an assessment of the government’s social and affordable homes programme with Q&A. He set out all the reasons why it would not bring an end to the housing and homelessness crisis.
With comments questions and insights from a wide range of housing campaigners and activists.
On 1 November Homes for All hosted a working group to help build a national housing and planning demonstration in March 2026.
The demonstration has been called in partnership with London Renters Union and Homes for Us. At the Homes for All meeting 16 delegate/s representing 14 groups agreed to maintain a working group as an adjunct the main steering group.
We believe this will contribute to building the demo on wider demands including council housing and planning for communities, the environment and people, which the above groups/unions also represent and support.
