Squeezed by a deepening housing crisis, renters and activists took to the streets of London to call for rent controls and council houses, reports Shabbir Lakha

On Saturday, several thousand people gathered in Soho Square and then marched along Oxford Street for the national housing demo.

As Terina Hine wrote in an article for Counterfire, the housing system is broken. Homelessness is spiralling and many are being forced out of London and other cities. Rents keep rising forcing young people and families into destitution.

The introduction of the Renters Rights Act provides some much-needed protection for renters, including abolishing Section 21 evictions and limiting rent rises to once a year. But it is far too little, far too late.

Landlords have been able to use the period until the law goes into effect to rush through no-fault evictions. There remains no provision to ensure houses are maintained to habitable standards and the unregulated market means landlords can keep charging exorbitant rents for squalid, overcrowded housing.

Nine years on from Grenfell, there are still over 4,000 buildings with unsafe cladding.

Saturday’s demonstration, led by the London Renters Union and supported by most major trade unions and dozens of campaign groups, mobilised from across the country to say enough is enough.

Ahead of the 7 May local elections, the movement has put housing on the agenda. Across the pond last year, Zohran Mamdani won his campaign to become New York Mayor on a platform with rent controls and a pledge to build 200,000 new homes at the forefront.

Especially as the cost of living continues to soar, exacerbated by Trump’s war on Iran supported by Labour, the Tories and Reform alike, there is the basis for a mass campaign to reject a status quo where landlords keep getting richer at our expense. Saturday’s demonstration was a strong first step.