London’s housing market is broken. Only those with extremely high incomes or vast cash deposits can get on the property ladder, private rents have spiralled out of control and the wait for social housing is measured in decades. Once vibrant communities are being uprooted, schools are closing as families are priced out, and homelessness is rampant.

It wasn’t always like this. In the 1980s, builders and nurses could afford family homes, there was abundant social housing (providing homes for nearly 35 per cent of the city’s inhabitants) and long-term security for private renters.

At The Conduit, award winning journalist Peter Apps joins activist and author Kwajo Tweneboa, architect and planner Pooja Agrawal and journalist and author Vicky Spratt, to discuss how housing shapes the cities past, present and future. Tracing the impact of the last forty years of housing policy, to revealing what will happen when a generation of renters retires, and climate change brings new challenges to a city unprepared for its consequences, our panel will explore the human toll of the housing crisis and what we can do to solve it.

Event Schedule

6:30pm: Pre-event socialising and networking

A cash bar will be available for refreshments.

6:45pm: Event begins

8:00pm: Event ends

Speakers:

Peter Apps is an award-winning journalist and Deputy Editor at Inside Housing. His previous book, Show Me the Bodies, winner of the Orwell Prize for political writing, has sold over 18,000 copies, and his coverage of the Grenfell public inquiry has received widespread acclaim. He has written for various publications including the Guardian, Unherd and the Spectator. He lives in London.

Pooja Agrawal is an architect, planner, and CEO of Public Practice, the social enterprise she co-founded in 2017 to build public sector capacity and improve the quality, equality, and sustainability of places. She also co-founded the social equality platform Sound Advice and co-edited Now You Know (2021), a compendium on spatial and racial inequality. Previously, Pooja worked at the GLA, Homes England, and in private practice in London and New York. She is a Fellow at UCL’s Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose, a Trustee of Open City, and has been recognised with awards including the Architect’s Journal Contribution to the Profession and the London Design Festival Innovation Medal.

Kwajo Tweneboa is a social housing activist who has been tirelessly campaigning against poor social housing conditions. He travels up and down the country shining a light on the conditions housing providers and governments have kept hidden, helping make meaningful change one home at a time, rallying his audience to lobby government officials and housing associations. He is passionately campaigning for change, having met with government officials from all sides of the political spectrum including Sadiq Khan and Michael Gove. In his documentary with Channel 4, Help! My Home is Disgusting Kwajo worked with tenants in disrepair and helped them tell their stories. The heart of this film is telling the stories of the people looking to be heard. He has appeared on Sky News, Good Morning Britain, GB News and featured in The Guardian and The Independent. Kwajo has been highlighted by the Big Issue as a changemaker and has been described as “Britain’s brightest social housing champion”.

Vicky Spratt is an award-winning journalist, author, and housing rights advocate. She has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize two years in a row (2023, 2024). Her first book, Tenants, was a Financial Times book of the year in 2022. Vicky’s second book, We Were Promised The Moon, will be published in 2026 with Fourth Estate. It is an agenda-setting analysis of how the economic settlement of the last 30 years has fundamentally reshaped life for young adults today. Vicky is a correspondent and columnist at The i Paper, and her writing is also in demand from other publications such as ELLE and Refinery29. You’ll find Vicky regularly on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Newsnight, Radio 4, the Andrew Marr Show on LBC, and the Newsagents.

Event image: Camden: tents of homeless people, Tottenham Court Road by Jim Osley.