By Lucy Matthews

It seemed Keir Starmer’s pledge to ‘Get Britain building again’ had been translated to ‘Get Britain’s heart beating again’ as I entered the Royal College of Surgeons for the Housing Quality Network’s (HQN) 2024 annual conference.

Every time I have heard or seen housing discussed in the media, the word ‘crisis’ has always trailed along after. This comes as no surprise. The Big Issue reported in April that some people are facing a wait of more than half a century to move into a social home, and are being offered unaffordable and unsuitable rented homes, whilst others risk homelessness.

Equally, for young people, home ownership has become a major sticking point with the generations that came before them who were able to celebrate their first homes without unaffordable deposits and skyrocketing mortgage rates.

In medical terms, a crisis is the turning point of a disease when an important change takes place that either indicates recovery or death. It was apt then that the housing crisis was dissected, analysed and observed by the sector’s own expert surgeons at this illustrious venue. But their diagnosis remains uncertain.

When providing the conference audience with a backdrop of where the UK stands today, Darren McGarvey stated that “a politician is only as strong as the council he keeps”. Whether it was listening to chief executive Heather Thomas poignantly discuss her experiences in feeling a sense of embarrassment divulging her line of work due to the reputation of the sector today, or hearing activist Kwajo Tweneboa’s account of the impact living in poor social housing on his well-being, I acknowledged that this was a sector heavily burdened by social responsibility.

Speaking about the overall mood of the nation with an unwavering intellect, McGarvey did not hold back in stressing the importance of acknowledging how far the UK has plummeted in the past few years. This was emphasised by HQN chief executive and conference chair Alistair McIntosh with the shocking statistic that local government currently spends £2 billion a year “incarcerating” individuals within temporary housing.

Fresh off the back of a King’s speech where Labour unveiled its plan to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, social housing has been provided with a window of opportunity which crossbench peer Lord Best urged the audience members to grasp. “We need permanence. We need a clear road map to figure out where we are going,” he told the audience.

McGarvey’s impactful closing statement summed things up: “We cannot live up to the promise of our own country’s name anymore.” Backstage, I questioned him on how the UK’s lack of identity is affecting young people and how they can remain optimistic. McGarvey said: “Leaning into class identity during my youth helped. Class identity is linked to material reality and I find that there is a real social utility to be found in this side of my identity.”

Darren’s words reminded me of the times my friends and I had been united in our worries about how the norm of owning a property by our late 20s seemed increasingly out of our reach. When homeownership is promoted as the only option, the inability to save for a deposit due to rising mortgage rates, or the rising number of adult children living with parents rising from 13.6% between 2011 and 2021 to 3.8 million, threatens the well-being of young adults who fear deeply about the state of their futures.

It was refreshing, then, to hear from the finalists of HQN’s Housing’s Next Generation competition, a group of young people never more certain about the impact of their role in helping to shape the future. I observed how these six promising individuals appeared to be taking McGarvey’s words to heart, united in their passion and determination to forge a career in social housing.

Speaking to them backstage I asked about the pressures of being a young person working in social housing. Finalist Mica Joseph, told me: “A lot of our colleagues are older, and we get a lot of messages on social media about how we can learn from young people.” Responsibility over pressure was also hugely stressed by the competition winner Anne Bentley: “The pressure on the sector is huge but it should be shared. I think this competition has given me hope in showing that there are a lot of young people who care.”  Another finalist, Sarah Cross, added: “The scale of the problem is underestimated and because of this I feel like I am responsible for opening people’s eyes to the immense problems young people face. Now is the time and we are shouting louder than ever.”

Listening to the future leaders of housing light up the room, competition host and communications expert Tom Palmer, said: “I see it all as a cycle. We need a constant drive for new ideas and increasingly young people are coming out of university with a different mindset about where they will live, work, and how society will function. They are thinking differently, which can only bear fruit when looking at how the housing industry is a more diverse and vibrant workplace.”

Hearing about tenant satisfaction levels, the new era of inspections, and the pressure the sector was under to ‘provide answers’ made me sense that the vibrancy Tom mentioned could easily leave the sector any minute. The clock ticks that bit faster for those working within the housing industry, sped up by the sad reality that having a safe and secure physical space within society isn’t always guaranteed for everyone.

The stability that comes from having a safe social home is something social housing activist and author Kwajo Tweneboa understands better than anyone. Having lived in a social home plagued by mould, asbestos, and cockroaches for years, enough was enough. Working passionately to get his story and those of many others heard through his social media activism and freshly-published book, Kwajo’s presence at the conference was truly inspiring.

Throughout the day, people had been spoken of in the form of statistics and results. Kwajo’s presence at the conference was a reminder that the health and well-being of tenants and those potentially facing homelessness was happening in real time and in real life.

When jokily asked on stage by Alistair Mcintosh if he had spoken to Angela Rayner, Tweneboa gave nothing away, yet when I asked him backstage about the new government I sensed collaboration was to come. “We need a manifesto of change. It can be fixed. The new government have moved quickly about making a point in fixing some of the issues I have spoken about and I hope they can deliver the promises they are making. I hope an open conversation will follow,” he said.

In June 2024, Keir Starmer wrote a comment piece for Inside Housing setting out his housing plans as future prime minister. His words were draped in an optimism. “We have an ambitious plan to deliver the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation,” he wrote. After listening to the ‘house doctors’ discuss the ins and outs of putting this plan into action, I left the conference with a clearer understanding of the future of social housing.

I am sceptical saying when or how this plan will truly come to fruition in the future ahead, but my main hope was the younger voices that defined the day. When analysing whether housing will succumb to death or recovery, I look to the likes of Kwajo Tweneboa and the Next Generation finalists as evidence of a positive future.