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Our Country in Crisis: Britain's Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild
This may be the most important book you read this year.
On 14 June 2017, Grenfell went up in flames and seventy-two people lost their lives. Three years later, two-year-old Awaab Ishak would die from a respiratory condition caused by mould. And in 2023, it was reported that we are seeing record levels of children experiencing homelessness. This is twenty-first century Britain, where millions are trying to build their lives on crumbling foundations.
Britain's in a housing emergency.
Campaigner and activist, Kwajo Tweneboa has been on the frontline of this housing crisis, highlighting the shocking conditions so many are forced to live with. He knows better than anyone the brutal realities the UK is facing, from the decimation of our welfare services to the rising poverty rates as the cost-of-living crisis continues.
This is how we rebuild.
Our Country in Crisis looks back at decades of poor decisions and highlights the modern-day the impact of the loss of social housing as a safety net. This housing emergency cuts across generations, class and education, and is devastating our health, destroying communities and ruining lives.
But it is not irreversible. Radical action is possible and Kwajo Tweneboa and his urgent, ground-breaking book are leading the way. For readers of manifestos for change such as It's Not That Radical by Mikaela Loach, Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey and Tenants by Vicky Spratt, this is the fresh new voice and perspective we need.
On 14 June 2017, Grenfell went up in flames and seventy-two people lost their lives. Three years later, two-year-old Awaab Ishak would die from a respiratory condition caused by mould. And in 2023, it was reported that we are seeing record levels of children experiencing homelessness. This is twenty-first century Britain, where millions are trying to build their lives on crumbling foundations.
Britain's in a housing emergency.
Campaigner and activist, Kwajo Tweneboa has been on the frontline of this housing crisis, highlighting the shocking conditions so many are forced to live with. He knows better than anyone the brutal realities the UK is facing, from the decimation of our welfare services to the rising poverty rates as the cost-of-living crisis continues.
This is how we rebuild.
Our Country in Crisis looks back at decades of poor decisions and highlights the modern-day the impact of the loss of social housing as a safety net. This housing emergency cuts across generations, class and education, and is devastating our health, destroying communities and ruining lives.
But it is not irreversible. Radical action is possible and Kwajo Tweneboa and his urgent, ground-breaking book are leading the way. For readers of manifestos for change such as It's Not That Radical by Mikaela Loach, Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey and Tenants by Vicky Spratt, this is the fresh new voice and perspective we need.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 18, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 28, 2024
A must-read. I’ve been following Kwajo on Twitter for a while and discovered a reality that isn’t talked about enough. I pre ordered the book as soon as he announced it on Twitter. The book provides context into the housing situation in the UK, how the country got there, it then tells true stories of people living in social housing, their terrible conditions, alongside the impact on people’s physical and mental health, especially on children. It also touches on topics such as building houses that are future-proof, through the impact of climate change, but also the role of governments and media and the need for longtermism. Finally, Kwajo explores solutions to change this reality. It really makes you think about housing in a hollistic way. Highly recommend!
August 10, 2024
It’s refreshing to see someone write about social issues that actually impact them or have impacted them directly, rather than university lecturers or ‘political commentators’ writing abstractly or based on research, instead of lived experience. This is what this book is, and fair play to Kwajo for building a platform and using it to highlight one of this country’s great failures.
Chapters were short and the book is easy to read, which is always important as it makes it accessible for people who aren’t used to academic jargon and huge, boring bits of writing. The book feels aimed at people who are on the sharp end of the housing crisis, in order to inform them that they’re not alone and encourage hope that things can be different.
The majority of the book focuses on outlining how deep, wicked and harmful our housing crisis is. Kwajo does a good job of explaining how we got to this point, and calls out the political elite who have made policy after policy that has privatised and deregulated housing, as well as the landlord class who have used the situation as a means to exploit peoples need to have a roof over their head for profit. The book also addresses how housing intersects with other social issues well, and outlines how our lack of access to safe, affordable and secure housing exacerbates challenges we see across society in areas such as education, healthcare and violence towards women.
However, the book doesn’t say enough about grassroots housing campaigns that have been on the frontline of fighting for better conditions for decades. I’m not sure whether this is because the chapters are short so lacking in depth, whether Kwajo doesn’t recognise grassroots residents campaigns as effective in the struggle for better housing, or whether he’s just unaware of their existence. Other than the mentions of Grenfell United, there is no mention of grassroots housing campaigns such as Focus E15, Acorn, Living Rent or London Renters Union to name a few. No mention of the squatters movement that has taken the housing crisis into their own hands and used direct action to ensure vulnerable people have a roof over their head across the country and throughout history. Kwajo talks about his collaboration with Daniel Hewitt and the team at ITV, who were responsible for exposing the appalling conditions of residents at Regina Road in South Norwood. However, messages reaching out to Kwajo to amplify and support the campaign that Regina Road residents built following this fell on deaf ears. Perhaps Kwajo feels the social media platform he has built and his own ‘activism’ is more effective than people building collective power on their estates in order to hold those in power to account and force an improvement in their conditions. If so, I think he’s wrong.
The last section of the book ‘looks forward’ to how things can be different, using examples of other countries who have implemented some no brainer policies to improve the quality and accessibility of their housing. However, for me, this section is lacking in the ‘how we get there’ element. Kwajo references his own ‘activism’ on social media, which in fairness can be and has been effective in publicly embarrassing landlords and local authorities into acting to improve the conditions he has highlighted, but doesn’t talk about the organising going on in estates across the country to unionise residents and build collective power. There is no mention of the radical history of this country, such as rent strikes in Glasgow and Leeds or the squatting movement. Grassroots, working class struggle has been fighting for better housing conditions for years, however Kwajo writes as if resistance to poor housing conditions is something new, or even non-existent.
I don’t want to sound too critical – this is an excellent book and Kwajo’s work has not only helped many families directly improve their material conditions, but has also shone a light on the disgrace that is our country’s housing situation. We have a long way to go, but we need more than “amplifying voices pushing for change on social media, buying books from these campaigners and reading widely”. Change only ever comes when the organised working class stand up and force it.
Chapters were short and the book is easy to read, which is always important as it makes it accessible for people who aren’t used to academic jargon and huge, boring bits of writing. The book feels aimed at people who are on the sharp end of the housing crisis, in order to inform them that they’re not alone and encourage hope that things can be different.
The majority of the book focuses on outlining how deep, wicked and harmful our housing crisis is. Kwajo does a good job of explaining how we got to this point, and calls out the political elite who have made policy after policy that has privatised and deregulated housing, as well as the landlord class who have used the situation as a means to exploit peoples need to have a roof over their head for profit. The book also addresses how housing intersects with other social issues well, and outlines how our lack of access to safe, affordable and secure housing exacerbates challenges we see across society in areas such as education, healthcare and violence towards women.
However, the book doesn’t say enough about grassroots housing campaigns that have been on the frontline of fighting for better conditions for decades. I’m not sure whether this is because the chapters are short so lacking in depth, whether Kwajo doesn’t recognise grassroots residents campaigns as effective in the struggle for better housing, or whether he’s just unaware of their existence. Other than the mentions of Grenfell United, there is no mention of grassroots housing campaigns such as Focus E15, Acorn, Living Rent or London Renters Union to name a few. No mention of the squatters movement that has taken the housing crisis into their own hands and used direct action to ensure vulnerable people have a roof over their head across the country and throughout history. Kwajo talks about his collaboration with Daniel Hewitt and the team at ITV, who were responsible for exposing the appalling conditions of residents at Regina Road in South Norwood. However, messages reaching out to Kwajo to amplify and support the campaign that Regina Road residents built following this fell on deaf ears. Perhaps Kwajo feels the social media platform he has built and his own ‘activism’ is more effective than people building collective power on their estates in order to hold those in power to account and force an improvement in their conditions. If so, I think he’s wrong.
The last section of the book ‘looks forward’ to how things can be different, using examples of other countries who have implemented some no brainer policies to improve the quality and accessibility of their housing. However, for me, this section is lacking in the ‘how we get there’ element. Kwajo references his own ‘activism’ on social media, which in fairness can be and has been effective in publicly embarrassing landlords and local authorities into acting to improve the conditions he has highlighted, but doesn’t talk about the organising going on in estates across the country to unionise residents and build collective power. There is no mention of the radical history of this country, such as rent strikes in Glasgow and Leeds or the squatting movement. Grassroots, working class struggle has been fighting for better housing conditions for years, however Kwajo writes as if resistance to poor housing conditions is something new, or even non-existent.
I don’t want to sound too critical – this is an excellent book and Kwajo’s work has not only helped many families directly improve their material conditions, but has also shone a light on the disgrace that is our country’s housing situation. We have a long way to go, but we need more than “amplifying voices pushing for change on social media, buying books from these campaigners and reading widely”. Change only ever comes when the organised working class stand up and force it.
August 25, 2025
An excellent book by a brilliant campaigner. Kwajo Tweneboa works hard to draw people's attention to the terrible conditions that a lot of people in this country are forced to live in. He gives some shocking examples of this in the book - a flat riddled with black mould, a flat overrun with cockroaches and the people who live in them unable to move. Kwajo thinks that housing is the most important issue facing Britain and he is right. I would quibble with a couple of the solutions he puts forward, for example I worry that rent controls would result in landlords selling off properties and the private rental supply drying up - which is why the bottom line is that lots and lots of housing, social housing and otherwise, needs to be built. But he is right that this issue underpins everything. Lots of people need to read this book and understand the seriousness of the crisis.
November 3, 2024
A vital and important book, Kwajo Tweneboa has delivered a public service in writing it, very much in keeping with his tireless activism. The scandals of bad housing and the terrible human impact of the UK's housng crisis are brought into stark focus. What's more, Kwajo makes a compelling case for change. The dreadful conditions he has explosed and shared in this book are the product of human decisions and indifferent; it's very much in the agency of people to make a difference. This is a book that should be read widely by those working in and around housing. That said, I suspect the ones who most need to read this book, won't.
October 4, 2025
I hope anyone with any kind of interest in the state of the nation reads this. Clear overview of why the housing sector is failing and the knock-on impact that has on education, health, the economy. Harrowing and upsetting accounts of the misery people have had to go through in council housing, at the hands of companies that don't see them as human beings.
Could not agree more when Kwajo says housing ought to be considered a key pillar of the state. Everything starts with a home.
Could not agree more when Kwajo says housing ought to be considered a key pillar of the state. Everything starts with a home.
December 21, 2024
Moving, urgent, informative.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews