Greater Manchester Housing Justice Network
Greater Manchester Housing Justice Network is a collaborative network that organises, advocates for and provides legal expertise to those facing housing inequality and accompanying poverty across Greater Manchester and nationally.
Who We Are
Greater Manchester Housing Justice Network is a co-funded project by Greater Manchester Tenants Union, Greater Manchester Law Centre & Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit supported by a number of community organisations and campaigns. We are actively growing our network of supporters and collaborators across Greater Manchester.
Greater Manchester Law Centre
We campaign for access to justice, and for welfare provisions, employment rights, and housing for all. We campaign for the restoration of legal aid, and we want to encourage all those who are in a position of power to change their policy for the better.
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit provides immigration legal advice, representation, and support to people subject to immigration control, including people who are at risk of homelessness and destitution. We campaign for improvements in immigration law and policy.
Greater Manchester Tenants Union
We are a member-led organisation of low and middle-income renters and residents working and fighting together to win concrete improvements in our everyday lives, and put political and economic power in the hands of ordinary working people.
Why do we need Housing Justice?
In April 2022 the UK Parliamentary Accounts Committee recognised the injustice faced by renters, particularly in the private rented sector. More than one in eight privately rented homes in England pose a serious threat to people’s health and safety. The report also uncovered evidence of unlawful discrimination, with an estimated 25% of landlords unwilling to let to non-British passport holders, and 52% unwilling to let to tenants who receive housing benefit.
The damning report ended with the fact it is “too difficult for renters to realise their legal right to a safe and secure home”, and that local authorities did not have the capability to provide them with proper protection. “Unsafe conditions, overcrowding, harassment, discrimination and dodgy evictions are still a huge issue.”
This is the justice gap faced by 11m renters in the UK and an estimated 1.2m renters across Greater Manchester.
The terrible recent case of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale shows that issues of disrepair and the inability to ensure that accommodation is adequately maintained and is harmful to health is not just limited to the Private Sector but is an issue in the social housing sector too. Again the UK parliament has shown the systemic failing for tenants in the social housing sector. Specifically the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Committee in July 2022 commented:
“we believe the poor treatment of tenants can be attributed, in particular, to:
- a lack of respect for tenants arising from a stigma attached to being a social housing tenant, or to other forms of discrimination;
- the power imbalance between providers and tenants; and
- the commercialisation of the sector, which has distanced some providers from their tenants and from their original social mission.”
What We Are Doing
We will combat housing injustice, highlighting its impact on an individual and community basis and advocate for a fairer housing sector.
We will do this through organising and campaigning; building tenant unions, ensuring people know their housing rights and enshrining the lived experience of the tens of thousands of people across the region faced with discrimination, poor housing conditions, insecurity of tenure, unaffordable rent and unlawful evictions are at the heart of our network.
We aim to build and utilise collective and legal action to enforce housing rights, influence housing policy and ensure the law better protects tenants. We recognise that particular communities are more impacted by housing inequality and discrimination: specifically Black, Asian & Multi-Ethnic Communities, migrants and refugees, low-income households and those with disabilities or underlying vulnerabilities.
