Adam Peggs is senior press and digital communications officer for Common Wealth.
A new piece of legislation will give private tenants in Britain more protection from arbitrary eviction. But without a major expansion of public housing, tenants will continue paying exorbitant rents that swallow up a huge chunk of their incomes.
Throughout Europe, states have spent decades running down the structures of public investment and planning that once made housing accessible for working-class people. A recharged model of public housing is essential to address the resulting crisis.
A government willing to confront the housing crisis head-on, rather than focusing on fostering owner occupation and the numbers game of maximizing private house-building, would do better to invest in quality public housing.