Housing associations in London are looking back to revolutionary post-World War I housebuilding efforts to say thank you to essential workers who are getting the country through the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Homes for Heroes campaign, launched today by The G15 – a group of the English capital’s biggest housing associations – is looking to build 100,000 new affordable modular homes across the country for essential workers.
Their plans echo efforts to house WWI veterans in 1918 when Prime Minister David Lloyd George gave a speech in which he promised “homes fit for heroes” and vowed “to make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in”.
Building the high quality, affordable social homes the country needs is the only way to both support the economy and ensure that everyone has access to safe, stable housing – government must place this at the heart of its plans for recovery.
🌈🏠 @G15London https://t.co/cjK70V2zxp
— Shelter (@Shelter) May 12, 2020
That laid the foundations for the ambitious Housing Act 1919 – better known as the Addison Act – which played a vital role in the council house revolution in the post-war years.
The G15 want to do the same for NHS staff, care workers, teachers, refuse collectors, delivery workers and more on the lowest incomes with well-designed, energy efficient and digitally connected affordable homes.