Housing

Multimillion-pound social housing sell-offs are still fuelling homelessness

Housing associations have made at least £82.3m from auctioning homes in five London boroughs since 2013, according to the Guardian

Tower blocks in Peckham. Image: Axel Drainville/Flickr

Housing associations in London have been slammed as figures show more than 150,000 social homes have been lost since 2012.

According to figures seen by the Guardian, associations have made at least £82.3m from auctioning homes in five London boroughs since 2013.

Analysis from Karen Buck, Labour MP for Westminster North, found that Brent, Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea housing associations sold 153 properties at auction through Savills estate agents – with more than half in Westminster totalling £36.4m in sales.

The auctions point towards a wider trend of some housing associations selling off social homes in expensive central London to fund new private developments.

Buck said: “I’m dealing with a family who are statutorily overcrowded and in the highest medical priority and I haven’t been able to get them moved in over eight years. That’s because housing associations [in general] say they don’t have the stock in the area and yet they’re still selling off homes.”

Tripled

Across the UK, sales of housing association social homes to the private sector have more than tripled since 2001, with 3,891 social homes sold in 2016.

According to experts, the sales are fuelling overcrowding and homelessness and undermining bids to tackle the housing crisis with Steve Hilditch, former head of policy for Shelter and a housing adviser to the last Labour government claiming, “They’re buying and leasing homes all over London as temporary accommodation yet housing association homes within these boroughs are being sold off.”

Other housing associations meanwhile are focusing on redevelopment. Kensington and Chelsea council and local residents warned a public inquiry that backing plans to redevelop the Sutton estate, a red-brick Edwardian mansion block near King’s Road, would push thousands of tenants into temporary accommodation or homelessness as associations would be encouraged to sell privately rather than update social housing.

The plans, from England’s largest housing association Clarion Group have sparked debate over the provision of social housing in the area just a year after the Grenfell fire in the north of the borough.

Despite around 200 vacant flats on the Sutton estate, many survivors are still living in temporary accommodation. Clarion has said the empty homes were not fit to be let however campaigners argue better maintenance of the estate would have offered more suitable permanent accommodation.

Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy council leader and lead member for Grenfell and housing, says, “It’s my view that Clarion’s intent from day one was to make money from the Sutton estate,” he says. “But William Sutton’s motivation was to provide homes for the poor. I would hope that they remember that.”

A spokesman for the council says it has spent £235m on securing 307 properties to help rehouse people affected by the fire. Of the 203 households requiring rehousing, 134 have a new permanent home, while 52 are in temporary and 15 in emergency accommodation.

Image: Flickr/Axel Drainville

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
Leaked letter to Tory MPs reveals renting reforms will be 'watered down' to 'appease landlords'
Renters Reform Bill
RENTING

Leaked letter to Tory MPs reveals renting reforms will be 'watered down' to 'appease landlords'

Housing crisis: Shared ownership an 'unbearable reality' which has 'failed to deliver', MPs warn
Housing

Housing crisis: Shared ownership an 'unbearable reality' which has 'failed to deliver', MPs warn

Most tenants have never heard of the beleaguered Renters Reform Bill
Renters and the Renters Reform Bill
Renting

Most tenants have never heard of the beleaguered Renters Reform Bill

ONS U-turns on plan to stop publishing data on deaths of homeless people after furious outcry
homeless deaths
homelessness

ONS U-turns on plan to stop publishing data on deaths of homeless people after furious outcry

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know