Alex Firth

The sky pool apartments suspended over Wandsworth in south London is marketed as a luxury amenity. It turns housing into spectacle, floating above a city where secure, affordable homes remain out of reach.

The question isn’t how exclusive it is, but who the city is being built for.

Number of workers on zero-hours contracts hits record high There has been a 181,000 increase in the number of zero-hours contracts since Labour was elected.

The number of UK workers on zero-hours contracts hits record 1.23m.

People subjected to insecurity, loss of workers rights.

Labour 2024 manifesto promised to ban "exploitative" zero-hours contracts, Employment Rights Act diluted that promise.

Reform plans to scrap up Equality Act – what it would mean for Britain

Trans people were the canary in the coal mine.

Labour gave tacit approval to ripping up the Equality Act by failing to uphold it or legislate for it when it was under attack from often dark money funded fascist lawfare.

www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...

But rights still matter. They shift who the system is for and who it answers to. A legal right would require govts to plan, fund and regulate housing around need, not just targets and market delivery.

I agree a right to housing isn’t a silver bullet. It must be paired with mass social housebuilding and serious public investment. Without supply, rights risk becoming hollow.

Palestine Action’s Victory Is Ours Too Today’s High Court ruling overturning the proscription of Palestine Action is a stunning victory for the anti-war movement and a damning indictment of the government. It proves its authoritarian crack...

Today’s High Court ruling overturning the proscription of Palestine Action is a stunning victory for the anti-war movement and a damning indictment of the government. It proves its authoritarian crackdown on protest can be defeated.

Stark and unacceptable. The right to housing is a human right, yet women are bearing the brunt of the rental crisis.

This is not inevitable. It reflects policy choices about housing supply, social security and tenant protections. Different choices can protect rights and prevent homelessness.

Internationally there are a lot of examples.

Finland recognises a right to housing in its Constitution, requiring public authorities to promote access to housing. That duty has shaped long-term policy, including Housing First, and helped drive sustained reductions in homelessness.

It’s a good point but it wouldn’t actually depend on who owns the homes. All government policy would have to be compliant with the rights standards, so they would be considering things like affordability and habitability much more meaningfully than they do currently. The point is to steer policy.

It would also place binding obligations on the state. Housing policy would have to meet rights standards and withstand scrutiny

Finally, if someone’s rights were violated, for example in unsafe temporary accommodation, they could challenge the government in court. That is a genuine shift in power.

Incorporating the right to housing into UK law would be transformative. It would shift housing from being treated primarily as an asset class to being recognised as the foundation of people’s lives, health, and security.

This is exactly the shift we need.

Treating housing as a right reframes the issue from market outcomes to state duties: affordability, security, and dignity are not optional.

🏠 Andy Burnham says clearly and powerfully: housing should be a human right, enshrined in UK law.

When politicians talk about homes in terms of rights, not just markets, it shifts the conversation.

This is what a rights based approach to housing sounds like.

Under Starmer, recognised refugees can no longer reunite with their children.

Recognised refugees.

Denied the right to reunite with their children.

It’s diabolical. Worse than anything the Tories did. & no, the racists are not & never will be satisfied.

So yes, he’s hated.

Housing history reminds us that what we tolerate is a choice. Future generations will judge us by the housing conditions we normalize.

Reforms didn’t happen because conditions were merely unfortunate, they happened when they became politically unacceptable. That’s a core ESCR lesson.

These conditions closely align with today’s right to housing standards: affordability, habitability, access to services, and security of tenure.

In this apartment a family of five Irish immigrants lived in an apartment with just a small bedroom and a living room. The children would often sleep on the roof of the building.

The tenements documents overcrowding, insecurity, and unsafe living conditions—realities that were treated as normal for working-class and immigrant communities.

I visited the Tenement Museum in New York recently, showcasing the housing conditions that immigrants arriving into the US lived in.

It’s impossible not to see it as a living archive of why housing is a human right 🧵

1/4 UN Experts and Special Rapporteurs have sent formal allegation letters to both the UK and French governments over serious potential human rights violations under the ‘one-in, one-out’ deal. You may read the full story here: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Rent controls are coming to the UK - but they're not a guaranteed win for tenants Rent controls are coming to the UK - but they're not a guaranteed win for tenants

Scotland moving toward rent controls shows spiralling rents are a political problem, not a law of nature. When pay goes to landlords instead of living costs, the system is broken.

Tenants across the UK need real limits on rent hikes.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This street in Cartagena, Colombia captures gentrification in one frame.

A renovated home now operating as an Airbnb sits next to long-standing housing shaped by informality, precarity, and survival.

Gentrification isn’t just aesthetic, it’s a shift in access, affordability, and security.

‘Absurd’: decent homes standard for England’s private renters will not be enforced until 2035 Campaigners say government is letting landlords ‘drag their feet’ and ‘denying renters the most basic standards’

Appeasing landlords.

Decent homes standard for England’s private renters will not be enforced until 2035.

Millions of renters are stuck paying hand over fist for shoddy homes that pose a real danger to their health.

Govts put profits before people.

No mention here of the upcoming cut to Universal Credit, which will cost 700,000+ disabled people an average of £3,000 a year.

From April, the health element of UC will be cut by nearly 50% for new claimants. Set out by @victoria-anns.bsky.social here: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...

😂

please post when it’s ready

Fury as enforcement of decent homes standard for private renters in England put back to 2035 Campaigners say government ‘denying renters the most basic standards in our homes’

Letting landlords stall on basic standards for years is indefensible.

It condemns millions of renters, including children, to unsafe, poor-quality homes while those responsible face little consequence.
www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j...

@carladenyer.bsky.social What does the Green Party think about introducing housing as a human right into UK law?