Housing Union:

Call to Action for Trade Unionists

We are entering the next phase of setting up a National Housing Union for all tenants and residents.

This is a vital project to establish an organisation capable of supporting individual tenants and residents with casework, organising within communities, and challenging landlord power in Parliament, local government, and the press.

We have written to all the major unions inviting their general secretary or a member of the senior team to discuss resourcing the core of the housing union.

To help us we need trade union members to write to their union urging them to accept the invitation.

Please download the template and list of general secretary email addresses here, and please let us know if you receive a response.

Thank you in advance for your time.

This project is our best hope for a fundamental shift in our ability to challenge bad landlords of all kinds - private, council, housing association, and almshouse. Trade unions are more likely to respond positively if they hear directly from their own members that there is a need for it.

SHAC Article: Does Housing Need Its Own Horizon-Style Inquiry?

Regular contributor to SHAC articles, Lindsay Bush, speculates on the ten questions that could be asked in a Post Office Horizon-style inquiry into housing.

The Horizon inquiry into the Post Office scandal looked beyond individual cases into the systemic problems of power imbalance within the organisation.

Within the housing sector, joining the dots in this way would expose the generalised lack of safeguards for tenants and residents, the way that the legal system fails to provide a route to justice, how rents and charges are allowed to spiral beyond affordability, and much more. Read it here.

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Service Charges:

Legal Challenge & Political Action Updates

Legal Challenge: Earlier this week SHAC met with a solicitor from the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), which is challenging the Government’s failure to protect residents from excessive and unjustified service charges.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) dismissed PILC’s concerns, claiming existing safeguards are sufficient. PILC strongly disagrees and will challenge the RSH’s response.

Political Action: When we met with MP John McDonnell, he offered to help our service charges campaign. One suggestion was to write back to the National Audit Office (which should be doing more to scrutinise public spending on service charges through Housing Benefit) to request a meeting with them. He also proposed that we try to meet with Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, who has previously declined to meet SHAC. John wanted to attend both meetings.

He also said that if we send him draft Parliamentary Questions to raise key concerns, they can help keep the issue in the political spotlight. SHAC has acted on all suggestions and we will provide updates through the newsletter and at SHAC meetings.

New Resource

The First Tier Property Tribunal has produced a guide to getting legal advice when taking a case to court, or defending yourself if the landlord is taking you to court. It can be downloaded here and is also available alongside other guides and templates on our help page: 

www.shaction.org/resources.

Next SHAC Monthly Meeting

Our regular monthly meetings provide an opportunity to hear updates on our campaigning and action, and to share any actions you are taking to hold your landlord to account.

Please join us for the next meeting:

6.30pm, Thursday 22nd October

Zoom link - passcode 459809

Add the date to your calendar here. You can find details of all SHAC events here.