Housing: Green solutions to the housing crisis in Southwark

The latest of our new series of political discussions will focus on the housing crisis in Southwark. While rents are spiralling, the housing waiting list gets longer and longer. Speculators leave homes empty and property developers are allowed to make huge profits by throwing up tower blocks of offices and flats that local people can’t afford. Much of our current housing stock is poor quality and hard to heat, needing urgent refurbishment.

Professor Paul Watt from the LSE will explore the nature of the housing crisis in London and Jerry Flynn from the local 35% Campaign, who has been campaigning long and hard in Southwark to increase the proportion of social housing that is built by the greedy developers who like to exploit our central London location, will help us understand what we are up against in this area. As our local election campaign gathers momentum, we will learn how the effects of the profit motive, planning rules and local authority expenditure cuts can be opposed. Jerry’s campaign is part of the local ‘SHAPE’ coalition of local groups whose demands are:

1. No to overdevelopment - Is it too high or too dense? NO!
2. 50% council housing on private land. 100% council housing on council land
3. No more fake consultations. We want genuine tenant, resident and local peoples’ involvement in the plans
4. Stop unsafe and poorly built development
5. Stop the demolition and sell-off of council housing - Refurbishment not demolition
6. Requisition or acquire empty homes
7. Protect and improve our estates, community facilities and town centres
8. Employ direct labour - give workers the power to challenge unsafe building work
9. Act on the Climate Emergency now. No unsustainable building, no loss of green space
10. Stop displacement of traders for unaffordable housing

Speaker notes:

Paul Watt is an expert on social housing, regeneration and gentrification. His book ‘Estate Regeneration and Its Discontents: Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London’ was published in 2021. His research has focussed on the ways that capitalism’s treatment of our land and urban spaces promotes social inequality and division.

Jerry Flynn grew up on Southwark’s Heygate Estate at the Elephant and Castle which was demolished by Southwark Council and its residents scattered to the four winds to make way for high density housing at prices that local people cannot afford. Jerry’s family was forced out in 2008 and his experience led him to dedicate himself to campaigning for Southwark residents and businesses to get the best possible deal from the ongoing transformation of Southwark’s docks, factories and workers’ housing into a playground for the international rich.

Date and time: 7pm to 9pm Thursday 22 May 2025

Venue: The Green Nunhead Community Centre, 5 Nunhead Green, SE15 3QQ

The venue is fully accessible (with a lift) and is served by buses 78 and P12. Nunhead Station is 10 minutes’ walk away.