Writer Dr Anna Minton will join the housing debate

THE housing crisis will not be solved by simply building more homes, a campaigner will warn on Saturday.

Speaking on our Cities of the Future panel on Saturday, Housing Rebellion activist Grace Lally will criticise the British political class for failing to resolve the intersecting housing and environmental crises.

She told the Tribune: “We do not have the luxury to imagine we can build all these new eco-friendly houses – it’s about managing the stock that we have and bringing it up to a standard.”

She said: “Housing is seen as an asset, as something to speculate on – that is disastrous for people generally, but it’s also disastrous for the environment, because what’s being built is simply being built as a speculative asset that can just be left sitting there empty.”

“It would make sense to deal with the housing crisis and the climate crisis in exactly the same way: we’ve got to share the resources we have much better. We have to share out the houses that already exist, we have to bring them up to a standard that means they’re not leaking energy.”

Ms Lally campaigns against the ownership of second homes and the speculative model adopted by large property developers.

She criticised a lack of action from both major political parties: “The Tories and Labour are trying to outbid themselves on how many environmental protections they can dismantle to build on green spaces and ‘block the blockers’ and promote the builders.

“These are not people who are interested in housing as a basic need, and in the environment as an existential crisis that we’re facing.”

On Saturday, Ms Lally will be joined by social justice campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa, who rose to prominence after highlighting the parlous state of Britain’s housing stock. He uses social media as a tool to name and shame the worst housing providers across the country. He will be there to talk about his upcoming book, Our Country in Crisis: Britain’s Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild.

Also joining the panel is journalist and academic Dr Anna Minton , whose book Big Capital explores the roots of London’s housing crisis.