| We wanted to share an update on our recent activity and campaign successes. If you would like to meet with us to discuss how you can support our campaign to End Furniture Poverty, please email Daniel.Peake@endfurniturepoverty.org
A bit of breaking news to share, in the past few days, two housing associations with over 40,000 properties each have pledged to start a furnished tenancy scheme, all helping us to reach our target of furnishing 10% of all social homes! We’ll share more news on this in our next edition.
End Furniture Poverty in Parliament:
EFP met with over a dozen MPs, Ministers and Lords during the last quarter, to discuss our Make a House a Home campaign to ensure at least 10% of social homes are let as furnished.
As a result of these meetings, EFP has had over 20 written questions asked in the House, which has served to improve our knowledge and understanding of how the government are attempting to tackle furniture poverty whilst also raising awareness of the issue within the Department of Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
In early October, EFP was delighted to welcome Sir Stephen Timms, Minister of State for Social Security and Disability and long-term supporter of End Furniture Poverty, into our Liverpool office (pictured). This visit proved to be incredibly fruitful and ensured that we continue to have an advocate at the heart of government who understands our campaign and wholeheartedly supports our ambition to end furniture poverty.
Following on from our roundtable event examining the impact of furniture poverty on survivors of domestic abuse that took place in the summer, End Furniture Poverty worked closely with the office of Paula Barker MP on a joint letter to the Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed.
Achieving over 50 signatures from supportive Members of Parliament, the letter sought to raise further awareness of furniture poverty in central government and highlight the need for greater furniture provision for vulnerable people such as survivors of domestic abuse. We are continuing to work with Paula and her team on next steps.
Housing Summits – Congleton and Guildford:
In recent months, End Furniture Poverty has worked closely with Sarah Russell, MP for Congleton, and Zoe Franklin, MP for Guildford, to bring together key social landlords within their constituency to discuss housing related issues and to encourage them to offer furnished accommodation for their tenants.
This has proven to be a very successful route to engage with key housing providers, including the likes of Jigsaw, a social housing provider with over 37,500 properties across the North West and the East Midlands who, following the session, were willing to commit to a pilot of furnished tenancies.
This is a really positive step in the right direction and, as we continue to work with MPs and local stakeholders from different areas of the UK, we hope to increase the number of social landlords who offer furnished tenancies to their low-income tenants.
Over the coming quarter, we are hoping to push forward in constituencies such as Stoke-on-Trent North and Blackpool North and Fleetwood to host similar housing summits that can target furnished tenancy support in these areas of significant deprivation.
EFP Reports – Crisis Support and Homelessness:
During this period, End Furniture Poverty launched two new reports, including our flagship Crisis Support research for 2024/25 titled ‘A New Hope for Crisis Support’, evaluating Local Welfare Assistance and the Household Support Fund in 2024/25, including recommendations and best practice examples for the Crisis and Resilience Fund set to begin on April 1st, 2026.
Our research found that 48 local authorities in England are now without a local welfare scheme, leaving nearly 18m people unable to access this type of support, and only 1% of the Household Support Fund nationally was used to provide furniture and appliances.
We were pleased that this report received a positive reception from those in Parliament and was circulated to DWP and Treasury teams by the office of Torsten Bell MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions.
Additionally, in recent weeks, EFP published ‘More Than a Roof: Why Furniture and Appliances Matter in Ending Homelessness’. This report included testimonies from those who have experienced homelessness as well as frontline workers from the Whitechapel Centre and Caris Families who provided a tremendous insight into the impact of missing furniture and white goods on those at risk of/leaving homelessness.
EFP commissioned an extensive research survey with the National Centre for Social Research and we have now begun work on an updated ‘Extent of Furniture Poverty’ report which will, for the first time since 2022, provide an in-depth look at the scale of furniture poverty across the UK, as well as looking more closely at its impact on health and wellbeing. We will be publishing the report in early 2026 and are planning Parliamentary events to disseminate the findings across Westminster.
EFP Conferences and Media Appearances:
Since September, End Furniture Poverty Director, Claire Donovan, has had several speaking engagements for conferences across the UK, including at the Housing Community Summit and Circular Communities Scotland, and we attended the Labour Party Conference and numerous other events.
All of these events have provided an opportunity for EFP to engage with social landlords and key officials across the sector to advocate for a renewed focus on furnished tenancies and exploring routes for landlords to best provide for their tenants.
During this time, there were also a number of media appearances, most notably on the October 1st on BBC Breakfast where Claire Donovan spoke of the importance of flooring in the Decent Homes Standard and continued to push for an emphasis on social landlords to offer properties as furnished for those on low incomes.
National coverage on the UK’s most watched morning TV programme, with over 6.8 million viewers in total, allowed EFP to raise awareness of furniture poverty, its solutions, and place a renewed pressure on central government and policy makers to explore furniture provision as a key tenet of their policies. We were also delighted by the in-depth study of furniture poverty and our campaign in The Times on November 10th.
Together we will End Furniture Poverty. |
