Housing crisis

UNISON campaigns for economic policies to ensure all our members have decent, secure, stable, safe and affordable homes

What is happening

The UK faces a housing crisis – we are not building enough homes. We need to build at least 340,000 homes per year – including at least 150,000 good quality social rented homes.

The acute shortage of housing, particularly social and genuinely affordable housing, has led to spiralling rents and house prices across the country. Many young people and families on low to middle incomes struggle to afford to rent or buy a decent home. Overcrowding, evictions, rent arrears and homelessness are all on the rise.

We’re concerned about:

the lack of appropriate government funding to invest in social rented homes;
the lack of skills or capacity in council housing departments to build new homes;
the dramatic reduction in the supply of social and genuinely affordable housing through policies such as the Right to Buy;
the 1.3m households on social housing waiting lists;
the impact of austerity and cuts to housing services and jobs;
the lack of a fair rent system in the private sector;
the high costs of renting and homeownership;
the poor quality of some homes in both the social and private rented sectors and how this affects the well-being of tenants; and
the effects of housing benefit cuts on vulnerable people who struggle to meet their housing costs.

Under-resourced housing workforce

Our housing crisis means unaffordable rents, families living with damp and mould, rough sleeping, and the lack of safe, affordable homes.

Housing workers on the frontlines – those employed in councils and housing organisations – face these challenges daily, often without the resources, training, or the support they need.

UNISON’s Housing Worker Survey 2024–25 revealed an overstretched, under-resourced workforce experiencing rising stress, frequent exposure to violence, and severe recruitment and retention problems – nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents reported experiencing violence at work in the past year.

Local planning teams have been hollowed out by a decade and a half of cuts, yet staff still handle around 350,000 planning applications each year

Sylvia Jones

Assistant policy officer

What UNISON is doing

We believe the government has a duty to ensure people living in the UK have decent, secure, stable, safe and affordable homes to live in. That’s why we campaign for economic policies that will help our members on modest incomes.

We’re calling on the government to urgently invest in a national house building programme to increase the supply of housing, particularly social rented homes, and to improve the affordability, accessibility, security, safety and quality of housing across all sectors.

UNISON is campaigning to:

Raise housing high up the political agenda.
Provide analysis of the implications of the housing crisis on public service workers and citizens.
Provide a forum for balanced policy debate; and provide alternatives and solutions to the housing crisis..
Act as a clear voice calling for urgent government action to tackle the housing crisis.
Highlight the crucial role of councils and housing associations in providing homes for people on modest incomes.
Campaign for a significant increase in funding to invest in genuinely affordable homes.
Highlight the need for a properly functioning housing market where supply meets demand and workers can afford to live in homes near their places of work.
Promote the economic benefits of house-building and the need to invest in and build more housing – especially social housing.
Support the TUC’s call for a moratorium on Right to Buy sales.
Highlight the need for better choices of affordable and social housing, independent housing advice and an end to the idea that home ownership is the only game in town.
Campaign for a system of rent controls and better regulation of the private rented sector to drive up standards.
Highlight the effects of welfare reforms on vulnerable people.
Highlight the need for an improved redress, consumer and regulatory system to raise standards and to empower tenants to hold landlords to account when things go wrong.

We know housing

Whether it’s pay negotiations or government policy, UNISON is the independent voice of the housing worker. Approximately 100,000 members are employed by local councils and housing associations, delivering services that include administering housing benefit, managing homes, housing-related social care, housing advice, repair work and administrative support. That gives us a unique knowledge of the issues affecting tenants, potential tenants and people working in housing.

We represent members from the workplace up to government and industry bodies, such as the National Housing Federations (NHF, WFHA, SFHA and NIFHA) and housing regulators, including Homes England.

We work with campaign partners to call on the government to solve the housing crisis.