Housing Conference at Southampton Law School: Exploring the Housing Crisis

On Saturday 5 March, academics from Southampton Law School took part in a housing conference titled 'Exploring the Housing Crisis'.

The conference was jointly organised between Southampton Law School and Unite the union and brought together a range of speakers including trade unionists, politicians including a Member of Parliament, leading academics from the UK, Ireland and Spain, civil society groups, community activists and tenant unions.

The speakers from Southampton Law School included Prof Helen Carr, Prof Lisa Whitehouse, Dr Emma Laurie and Dr Mark Jordan. In addition to speaking, Prof Helen Carr and Dr Mark Jordan helped to organise the event by working with the Unite Community Housing Action Group.

The conference took place over zoom, was open to the public and well over 150 people registered to attend.

By all accounts the conference achieved its goal of bringing disparate groups together to learn from one another about the nature of the housing crisis and identify positive actions that can be taken to address the housing crisis at a local, national and international level.

This was the first joint project organised between Southampton Law School and Unite the Union but there are plans to hold further collaborative research events.