Everyone has the right to Housing
Housing is a universal human right. It is one of the foundations people need to live well. By protecting it, we can build fairer systems, reduce inequalities, and ensure everyone has a safe, secure and affordable place to call home.
What is the right to housing?
Everyone should be able to live in a home that is safe, secure and suitable for their needs. But right now, too many people across the UK are struggling with unaffordable rents, poor housing conditions, homelessness and insecurity.
Everyone has the right to housing – and the support to achieve it.
It doesn’t have to be this way. These experiences are not inevitable. They are shaped by choices about how our systems are designed, funded and implemented.
The right to housing is guaranteed in international law. It’s part of article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) – the right to an adequate standard of living. The UK Government ratified ICESCR in 1976 and in doing so agreed to abide by the rights in it.
The right to housing is not simply about having a roof over your head. It is about ensuring everyone can live in a home that is affordable, secure, accessible, habitable and connected to the communities and services they rely on.
Housing is one of the foundations of a strong society. Like food, healthcare, education and decent work, it helps create the conditions people need to live healthy, secure and fulfilling lives.
In practice, the right to housing means:
- Everyone can access a safe, secure and affordable home
- Housing is available, accessible and adequate for everyone, no matter who they are or where they live
- People are protected from homelessness, forced eviction and discrimination
- Governments create the conditions for adequate housing through effective laws, investment and support
- Housing enables people to participate fully in family, community and working life
- People can hold decision-makers accountable when housing systems fail to provide the foundations they need to live well
When these foundations are strong, people can thrive. When they are not, people experience insecurity, poorer health and reduced quality of life, and this harm is avoidable.
Why stronger protections are needed now?
Across the UK, too many people are struggling to access adequate housing.
- Families are living in temporary accommodation for months or even years.
- Renters face rising costs and insecurity, making it difficult to plan for the future.
- Many people are living in damp, overcrowded or unsafe homes that harm their health and wellbeing.
- Home ownership is increasingly out of reach for many households.
- Homelessness remains at unacceptably high levels.
- Disabled people, people on low incomes, racialised communities and other groups face disproportionate barriers to accessing adequate housing.
These are not isolated experiences. People’s everyday experiences show where systems are failing and where change is needed.
Housing insecurity is not the result of individual choices or personal failure. It reflects decisions about housing supply, affordability, social security, planning, investment and tenant protections.
Protecting the right to housing would help shift the focus from crisis management towards prevention, accountability and dignity. A legal right to housing would create clear standards, strengthen accountability, and help ensure decision-makers take action when housing systems are failing.
What does a right to housing look like in practice?
Recognising housing as a human right would not solve the housing crisis overnight, but it would change how decisions are made. It would require governments and public bodies to consider whether their policies help people access adequate housing, prevent homelessness and reduce inequalities. Instead of responding only when people reach crisis point, decision-makers would be expected to take proactive steps to ensure everyone has access to a safe, secure and affordable home.
In practice, this could mean increasing the supply of genuinely affordable and social housing, strengthening protections for renters, ensuring social security provides enough for people to afford housing costs, improving standards in rented accommodation, and investing in approaches such as Housing First that prevent homelessness before it becomes entrenched. It would also mean listening to people with lived experience, monitoring progress, and ensuring there are clear routes to accountability when housing systems fail. A rights-based approach does not prescribe a single policy solution, but it provides a framework that helps ensure housing policy is guided by dignity, equality and people’s everyday needs.
right to hOUSING Resources
Read our toolkit on asylum accommodation.
Read our blogs on the right to housing.
Explore our reports, briefings and submissions on housing and human rights.