Paul Smith and Vicky Spratt: How Do We Solve the Housing Crisis? (Bristol Ideas)

Paul Smith and Vicky Spratt talk about rent controls and homes for all through new council housing, and about creating better lives and places for people.

We face a housing crisis and this crisis has been present for many decades. We all need a roof over our heads and a community to live and prosper in. Too many people don’t have this: 22 million people (including children) don’t have a safe, secure, stable home. Many people are homeless and living on the street. We’re not building enough houses, and not enough of the ones we build are affordable. We used to build hundreds of thousands of council houses and now build very few. No fault evictions are back. And it’s all been made worse by the pandemic.

Vicky Spratt, author of Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency, joins Paul Smith, former Bristol City councillor and Cabinet Member for Homes and Communities. They discuss the facts of the crisis, Bristol housing, council housing, the importance of being established in a place, what councils can – and can’t – do, what national government needs to do, rent controls, and the need for a politics of possibility.

In conversation with Andrew Kelly, Bristol Ideas.

This recording was made before the prime minister’s announcement about home ownership and right to buy.

Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency by Vicky Spratt: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tena...

Presented by Bristol Ideas. Find out more: https://www.bristolideas.co.uk/

Image credits: Paul Smith - Ocean Media; Vicky Spratt - Poppy Thorpe