Housing Research

I research and write about the history of housing insecurity and housing policy in Britain.

My first book, Eviction: A Social History of Rent, tells the national history of housing insecurity and working class resistance to evictions through the story of a post-war estate in Leeds. Info about the book (due out on 16 September 2025) is on a dedicated page. Below is context to the story and links to related opinion pieces.

I am also currently working with Justlife (a homelessness and temporary accommodation organisation) to write an accessible and policy-relevant history of temporary accommodation in Britain. This first-of-its-kind report will spotlight the distinct evolution of temporary accommodation policy and practice. Report due early 2026. Watch this space for more updates.

Background to EVICTION: A Social History of Rent

In 2017, my parents and brother were informed by their investment company landlord that their 70-house estate was slated for redevelopment and that they should all expect eviction notices in due course. My family had lived on that estate for 11 years at that point, and some of their neighbours had lived there since the 1960s. They were a community of long-time friends, families, and carers.

My parents and their neighbours fought back: forming a residents association, petitioning the council, galvanising local and national media attention, and highlighting the importance of their community and its history. In 2019, they succeeded in having the planning application refused by Leeds City Council, only to see that decision overturned in January 2021 by a national planning inspector. The community have since been evicted from their beloved homes.

I have documented the campaign via the blog page: http//saveourhomesLS26.org. Click on the link to more about the whole community of campaigners, the timeline of our fight, and what we achieved/

I have also written about the fight and our victories and losses in different media outlets:

The Guardian: “Our landlord is demolishing 70 homes- but we won’t go quietly” (March 2018)
Red Pepper Magazine: “Fighting for Cardboard City: The drudgery of activism on the frontlines of the housing crisis” (Summer 2022)
Feminism and the City? Magazine: “Housing as an infrastructure of care: Defiance against destruction in a British suburb” (June 2022)

For my article, “Fighting for Cardboard City”, I won the inaugural Dawn Foster Memorial Essay Prize, 2022.

Presented the award by Lynsey Hanley, author of *Estates*.

In 2024, I was awarded a K Blundell Trust Society of Authors grant for works designed to raise social awareness.

Eviction: A Social History of Rent will be published in September 2025.