What can we do about the housing crisis?

Each year Leeds hosts Uk-REiiF, where over 16,000 delegates visit our city to buy and sell land, network building opportunities and develop property portfolios.In a city whose housing, both old and new, is so dominated by the 'buy to rent' market and where access to secure, long term, affordable, safe homes is so limited, what should the conversations really be about? Hold Fast Bookshop have gathered together four writers and researchers to discuss the current state of housing, ways forward and the conversations that we really need to have.- Dr Jessica Field is a historian and writer specialising in housing insecurity, eviction and homelessness in Britain. Winner of the Dawn Foster Memorial Essay Prize and author of Eviction: A Social History of Rent (Verso, 2025), she is currently researching the history of temporary accommodation with Justlife.- Pratichi Chatterjee is an urban geographer at the University of Sheffield, whose research focuses on the politics of redevelopment, housing and homelessness. Her current work, funded by the Housing Studies Charitable Trust, looks at Leeds's recent housing history through the lens of race.-Stuart Hodkinson (University of Leeds) is a campaigning academic on housing injustices and the author of Safe as Houses: Private Greed, Political Negligence and Housing Safety After Grenfell (Manchester University Press, 2019). He has recently been involved in the Manchester Social Housing Commission (https://www.socialhomes4mcr.org.uk/commission), which has put forward proposals for increasing the delivery of sustainable homes for social rent.-Paul Chatterton is Professor of Urban Futures in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds, where his work addresses the pressing climate, ecological and social challenges shaping contemporary urban life. Over the past 25 years, Paul has collaborated extensively with civil society organisations, local authorities, campaigners and community groups to develop practical, place-based responses to the climate emergency. His work has supported initiatives to phase out fossil fuels, repurpose derelict buildings, establish community-led housing models and development trusts, and promote lowcarbon mobility. He has facilitated non violent activist and youth movements, contributed to campaigns for migrant and peace justice, and helped grow grassroots networks focused on cycling, walking and urban liveability.
He regularly advises businesses, public bodies and civic partners on climate emergency planning, urban decarbonisation and participatory governance. In Leeds, he has played a central advisory role in Climate Action Leeds, a decade-long programme developing a citywide vision for a fair, zerocarbon future. Beyond the University, Paul is an active advocate for alternative housing models and lives in Lilac Grove, an awardwinning cohousing community pioneering lowimpact living. He is currently Chair of Kirkstall Valley Park, a Director of leeds Community Energy, and a cofounder of Leeds Community Homes and the Common Place Social Centre, as well as the University of Leeds interdisciplinary network on Remaking Places.https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-chatterton-7824b91b2/Wharf Chambers is a members' club and you need to be a member, or guest of a member, in order to attend. To join, please visit our website. Membership costs 2 and requires a minimum of 48 hours to take effect. Please visit wharfchambers.org [//wharfchambers.org] to sign up.