Industry News


Tenants should have a right to a garden


Time to act on the silent scandal of nearly 4 million dangerous homes


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Housing developers and landlords should give tenants a “right to a garden” according to a leading horticulturist who also campaigns for more green spaces in new-build homes. Jason Williams is known as the cloud


gardener. He is campaigning for green spaces in new builds and rights for tenants to grow plants. He recently worked with students to create balcony gardens for the Royal Horticultural Society urban show held in Manchester to demonstrate what can be done in a small space. Each garden cost £500 to create. He also


created an example allotment with easy-to- tend plants, which a developer could easily put into a new-build block of flats. Williams is campaigning for developers and landlords to create spaces for tenants and leaseholders to grow plants, and says it should be part of their responsibility to give green space to the people who live in their developments. “People are crying out for green space,


especially now with this cost of living crisis,” he said. “Tings are getting so, so difficult for so many people across our towns and cities and green spaces are a really, really great way of helping people with their wellbeing. And I think that if we can just encourage developers just to take that next step, I think that will really, really be impactful.” Williams said he thought tenants should


have a right to a garden and said he had seen examples of renters being banned from gardening. “It’s really interesting because especially as a renter, you become even more powerless. People have reached out to me and said, actually, I started balcony gardening or I put some pots out around my terraced home. But the developer then said no, you can’t have those pots there because there’s a fire risk. And then all of a sudden, you get completely shut down,” Williams said. Other tenants have also blocked people from gardening, he said. New laws mean developers who create


new builds have to create “biodiversity net gain”, which means having at least 10% more space for nature on the plot of land than there was before they built it. But these areas, Williams said, are oſten not gardens and do not give a huge wellbeing benefit to the people who live in the developments.


‘Safe Homes Now’ campaign has been launched to tackle the poor state of housing, which sees 8 million people


living in 3.7 million dangerous homes that are cold, in need of repair or have serious hazards. Almost one in four homes (21%) in the private


rented sector fail the decent homes standard compared to around one in seven owner-occupied (14%) and one in 10 (10%) socially rented homes. And the problem is getting worse. For the first time since 2016, the number of non-decent owner occupied homes has risen. In polling commissioned for the launch of the


Safe Homes Now campaign, more than half of people (54%) said it had become more difficult to keep their home warm over the past two years, two in five (39%) said that it has become more difficult to keep their home in a good state of repair and one in four (25%) said that is has become more difficult to keep their home free from hazards and defects. It has become normalised that people live in


homes that might be dangerously cold, in disrepair or with life-threatening hazards. It is a national scandal that is never talked about. And building new homes will not come close to solving the problem, as four in five homes that will exist in 2050 have already been built. Having good support and policies in place for


home improvement is absolutely vital. Yet it is a topic almost never discussed politically and in that silence, our current political system is failing the majority of homeowners and renters. Tousands are dying in their homes every year


because they are too cold. Tousands more are dying in preventable accidents and falls. Tese are lives cut short, futures unfulfilled, cherished family and friends gone forever. Te Centre for Ageing Better, alongside eight


other charities including Barnardo’s, Asthma + Lung UK and Independent Age, has launched Safe Homes Now. Te new campaign is calling on whoever forms the next Government to halve over the next decade the 3.7 million dangerous homes in this country. Tey believe the target is achievable but only if


the housing quality crisis in this country is tackled with the urgency, priority and resource that it warrants. At the moment, they believe housing policy is driſting with no sense of purpose how to tackle this really key issue.


DWINDLING RESOURCES Resources needed to tackle the problem are dwindling. Research has shown that more than £2 billion has been withdrawn in private sector grant support over the past decade – money that could have funded the repair of 600,000 homes.


10 | HMMJune/July 2024 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


Having good support and policies in place for home improvement is absolutely vital. Yet it is a topic almost never discussed politically and in that silence, our current political system is failing the majority of homeowners and renters


Te situation has now been reached where more


money is being spent maintaining the Houses of Parliament than on the rest of the nation’s privately- rented and owner-occupied homes combined. Te group are calling for a national strategy


to tackle the poor quality of the country’s homes because this issue is too big and too important to be resolved with piecemeal, ad-hoc solutions. It needs long-term thinking and planning. Tey believe people need greater access to


reliable information and support to maintain their homes. Polling has revealed that among people requiring home repairs in the past two years who had not been able to have the work done, more than half (57%) said it was because it was too expensive. A further one in five people (19%) could not find the right person for the job. Te Centre for Ageing Better believes the


solution is the establishment of a national network of local one-stop shops called Good Home Hubs. Tese hubs would offer advice on home repairs and adaptations including where to find trusted tradespeople, identifying what work needs to be done, how to finance repairs and improve energy efficiency. Polling indicates more than one in two people


(57%) would likely use a Good Home Hub if it was available in their area. Te next Government is being urged to pilot the Good Home Hub model in 50 areas for at least two years to see the difference it could make to people’s homes and to their lives.


To find out more about the Safe Homes Now campaign and how to get involved, contact christos.tuton@ageing-better.org.uk Initial members of the Safe Homes Now campaign are: Centre for Ageing Better, Asthma and Lung UK, Barnardo’s, Impact on Urban Health, Independent Age, Nationwide Foundation, Race Equality Foundation, Te Runnymede Trust and St John Ambulance.


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