Council-owned homes call as housing report reveals sofa-surfing and squatting crisis

Housing and homelessness are the subject of a report by tenants' union Housing Action Teesside
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)


Vulnerable people are being trapped in homelessness and desperate conditions in a housing crisis, according to a hard-hitting report.

Tenants' union Housing Action Teesside is urging for a return to housing under direct council control, which it says is more democratically accountable. The campaign, which represents hundreds of tenants across Teesside, wants to persuade Stockton Council to go back to council-owned homes, "eventually built on a large scale".

Its report, which has been submitted to Stockton Council as part of a review of affordable housing, concludes: "Our members and other residents across Stockton are experiencing a housing crisis, and need ambition and urgent action from the council. In the long term, Stockton's housing sector will not be sustainable without large-scale council housing.

"We urge Stockton Council not to be left behind, and to take the steps now to begin rebuilding Stockton's social housing under direct, democratically accountable council control.

"Many of our members are trapped in desperate housing conditions or have been on housing waiting lists for years. Other members, including vulnerable people, are forced into exploitative private rented housing they cannot afford leaving them in a cycle of homelessness, because there is no possibility for them to access social housing.

"We have come to the conclusion that solving the housing crisis in Teesside and across the country requires large-scale council housing-building."

They say average monthly rents in Stockton are £649, up 7.9% since July 2023, and some tenants had seen "dramatic increases... which have placed them in significant hardship". The report says people are priced out and forced into homelessness, with an 83% rise in the number of households seeking homelessness support since 2019, many were not considered "priority need" by councils which are under pressure by the scale of the problem, and there had been a 138% rise in no-fault evictions since 2019.

'Sofa-surfing or sleeping rough'

It says: "Many have given up on hope of finding permanent accommodation and have been left in cycles of sofa-surfing or sleeping rough... More people experiencing homelessness in Stockton are being left in substandard accommodation, or forced to sofa-surf, sleep rough or squat.

"Housing Action Teesside members in both private and social rented accommodation are living through often extreme housing disrepair, and the frustration of being trapped on waiting lists," the report states. It says tenants had common problems with damp, mould, broken windows, doors and boilers, unable to use showers or washing machines for months.

It tells of one tenant and her adult daughter who developed disabilities and were forced to sleep on a cramped sofa bed as they could not access the entire top floor of their house. It describes how they were "on housing waiting lists for four years in substandard accommodation", beset by IT problems on a home-finder website.

It argues housing has been left in the hands of corporate social landlords, "who are not democratically accountable to their residents and... there is now limited incentive for housing associations to improve their properties or build new social housing. Today, building of social housing is negligible compared to housing need.

"By building council housing Stockton could relieve the housing waiting list, allow it to move vulnerable people on from temporary accommodation, and provide a realistic alternative to private rented housing which would provide a downward pressure on private rents.

"Of course, Housing Action Teesside recognises that this problem could not be solved from a standing start, and acquiring council housing poses its own challenges. Nevertheless we argue that Stockton Borough Council should begin acquiring council housing today at a manageable scale, and plan for a future in which large-scale council house-building can end the housing crisis."

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