The militant march in London demanded housing justice
By Pat Meusel
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Saturday 18 April 2026
Marchers took to the streets in central London (Pic: Guy Smallman)
Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday for the national housing demonstration.
The protest was called by Homes4All and the London Renters Union, among others, and backed by over 50 other tenants’ unions, trade unions and grassroots campaigns. And activists travelled from as far as Newcastle and Portsmouth to join.
Their demands included a call for rent controls and the construction of council housing.
Emily and Paul are architects working in London. They told Socialist Worker, “We left Dublin because of a housing crisis there, and now we’re faced with rising rents here.
“We’d love nothing more than to be working on council housing. But everything’s geared towards private development and profit.”
Molly, an activist and council housing tenant in north London told Socialist Worker, “I’m here today because as a mother, grandmother and working class person who’s been fortunate enough to benefit from council housing, I fear there won’t be affordable housing for future generations.”
And the mood on the demo was militant.
Left wing MP Zarah Sultana told the rally, “Priorities are a political choice. So we have to ask, why is there always money to destroy homes abroad while we fail to build them here?”
Becca from Trans Action for Housing Justice, said, “Yes, we need rent controls, we need council housing. But that is a fraction of what we deserve. These are the first demands in a fight for our freedom.”
And Adam, a disability activist from Inclusion London, said “We are not asking for sympathy, we are demanding justice.”
Tanya, an activist with Homes 4 All and Southwark Housing and Planning Emergency (Shape) called for unity against racism. She said, “The most important thing I have to say today is that refugees did not cause the housing crisis.
“The billionaires who make the rules want us to blame each other. But we need to say, loud and clear, no to fascists like Tommy Robinson, no to racists like Reform UK, and no to those like Keir Starmer who have acted as Nigel Farage’s best recruiting agents. We must not let racism divide us.”
The march set off with chants of “Here to stay, here to fight, housing is a human right”, “When I say ‘rents up’, you say ‘fight back” and “Starmer in your ivory tower, this is called people power”.
There were banners on the march from a big and broad number of organisations, including Justice for Grenfell, renters’ unions from Bristol, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford and Sheffield, local branches of the NEU, Unison and Unite unions, the London Green Party, Your Party branches from Lewisham and Walthamstow, and Stand Up To Racism.
Molly called for more action over housing. She said, “It’s great that so many people have come together here today, but this needs to be the start of something bigger.”