Florence Eshalomi: 'Where’s the outrage that so many children have died in temporary accommodation?'

Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer

Harriet Symonds

@harriet_symonds

"For a long time I associated suitcases with moving your belongings, not going on holiday, because that was all I ever used suitcases for."

Florence Eshalomi, the new chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, knows all too well what it’s like to live in temporary accommodation.

Now 44, Eshalomi grew up on a council estate in Brixton and recalls the joy she, her mother and sisters felt when, at last, they moved into a permanent home. “Having spent some time living in a B’n’B in Kings Cross, we had to commute on the Victoria line all the way to Brixton to go to school,” she recalls. 

“That feeling when you’re finally given permanent accommodation – it’s almost like you’ve won the lottery. You feel that sense of relief that you don’t have to lug your clothes and your belongings. For a long time, it’s black bags and suitcases... The security and the stability that social housing provided my mum, my sisters and us really changed our lives.”

It may be one reason why the Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green wants her party’s government to be even more ambitious when it comes to housing. Keir Starmer has promised 1.5m new homes will be built by 2029, a target that requires levels of housebuilding not seen for 50 years. Eshalomi wants more: “It’s really good to see targets back and ambition from the government in terms of the proposal to build 1.5m within this Parliament – but actually we need more than 1.5, if we’re really honest.”

“We have to see an increase in social, affordable housing,” she stresses, adding that experts in the field such as the National Housing Federation say “it should be around 90,000 a year to help address the issues in social housing”.

I don’t just want to be the first. I want to be the first of many

For Eshalomi, the stability of permanent housing was a lifeline as she helped look after her late mother who was unwell with sickle cell anaemia. “The security and the stability that social housing provided my mum, my sisters and us really changed our lives,” says the MP.

It’s fitting, then, that the committee’s first inquiry under her chairmanship is focused on children in temporary accommodation. It recently heard that 74 children had died from circumstances relating to their housing. 

“That was quite painful, quite worrying for me, and personal. As a mother, you can’t help but feel a bit guilty when you tuck your little ones into bed and know that there are over 160,000 children who may go to sleep tonight in accommodation that’s unsuitable or uninhabitable… Some of those children might not know where they’ll sleep the next night,” she says.

“To think that we are one of the richest nations. Where’s the outrage that so many children have died in accommodation linked to where they lived?”

Eshalomi continues: “Since 2010 we’ve had 16 housing ministers. Everyone says there’s a housing crisis, but yet we need that stability to actually say, ‘Yes, successive governments are going to take this as a priority’. 

“I joked about it when the minister attended our committee, Matthew Pennycook. I did say: ‘You’re not allowed to resign.’ Because we need that stability to say housing is a key priority, and we’re going to focus on it. And we’re going to focus on it because we are going to let down a generation of young people if we don’t.”

Eshalomi does not take up the cause advanced by some of her colleagues who say councils should take back housing stock from housing associations to turbo-charge the provision of social housing. “If any council leader were here, they would tell you the cost associated with that, because if they’re taking stock which has long running issues, there could be defects, there could be stuff around remediation. That’s going to come with another set of headaches and cost.”

“For me, it’s about the service that the person living within that property is getting. And is there accountability? Is there transparency? Is there value for money in terms of the rent and service charge they pay?”

Local authorities in England have been granted a £69.4bn budget settlement for 2025/26, but Eshalomi insists it is not enough to help cash-strapped councils cope with rising demand for essential services. “Councils of all shapes and sizes, of all different political persuasions, are struggling. They’ve been struggling for a long time, and even though we welcome the additional funding from the government set out in the settlement... It’s still not enough,” she insists.

Last year Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner committed to limiting the number of properties that can be sold under the Right to Buy scheme, which gives tenants the option to buy their council home at a discount. “For any new properties that have been built in the social rented sector, they should not be able to be bought – we should definitely scrap that.”

More broadly, Eshalomi says of Right to Buy: “I think the intent when it was introduced was probably good, but what’s worrying is that the receipts haven’t come back to councils.”

Home ownership is not always the answer, she argues. “We push that a lot and it’s almost like if you don’t own your own home you haven’t made it. For a number of people, they want to rent. They want that security of tenure. They want to know that they’re in a safe, more secure home. They will pay their rent and they don’t want to take on the burden of a mortgage.”

After Rayner’s decision to roll back Right to Buy, some accused her of hypocrisy for scrapping a scheme she benefited from herself. Formerly Rayner’s PPS from 2020 to 2021, Eshalomi still has a lot of respect for her old boss. “It’s really good seeing someone like her in charge at [Housing, Communities and Local Government] – someone who understands,” she says.

“She’s someone who is very hard-working. People do underestimate her. I’ve seen some of the attacks over the years – the misogyny, the classism. That element is not nice. And when I’ve faced issues around racism, she is someone who cares, so a strong support. We’ve supported each other during some difficult times.”

After confirming that Grenfell Tower, the scene of the worst residential fire since the Blitz, would be demolished, Rayner faced backlash for her handling of a meeting with the bereaved families and survivors. As a London MP, Eshalomi is acutely aware of the sensitivities felt in the community. 

“There’s still a lot of trauma. When you think about the fact that it will be eight years this June, and the survivors still haven’t had justice, no one’s been prosecuted yet for what happened. For a number of them, they weren’t even able to bury their loved ones. Their ashes and bones still remain within the rubble of that building. So, it is a difficult one. I can imagine any secretary of state would have found it hard coming to that decision.”

The government has committed to removing all dangerous cladding by the end of 2029, but last year the National Audit Office (NAO) found up to 60 per cent of these buildings had still not been identified by the government. “In fairness, the government has said that they want to accelerate this. They want to make sure that all the buildings have finished being identified. From the committee’s perspective, it’s about continuing to push the government on that,” she says.

“For me, it’s not about the timelines. It’s about the fact that there are still people living in buildings with dangerous cladding on them,” she adds. “Some of the developers have literally gone bust and no longer exist. Who’s going to pick up that bill?”

London is at the sharp end of Britain’s housing crisis. Mayor Sadiq Khan has been criticised for the “sluggish” progress of his affordable homes programme that built just 2,358 homes in 2023-24. “It’s not for want of trying, why we haven’t seen more housebuilding in London,” she says, adding: “I know that this is an area that he is laser-focused on and committed to.”

Khan and Eshalomi have known each other since her time serving on the London Assembly before becoming an MP. Last year Khan expressed support for imposing rent controls to help struggling tenants as the city battles a rental crisis. Eshalomi says she is open to the idea, suggesting there is “an element to explore, even if it’s a temporary timeframe”.

“In some parts of London, private rent went up by 10 per cent. Local people’s income hasn’t gone up by that scale. Something has to give in London. We cannot continue to see that level of rent.”

She adds, however: “Not just rent controls, what I want to see is a fairer deal for private renters.”

I want Keir to loosen up a bit

Being the first woman to chair the Housing Committee and first Black woman to chair any Commons committee – beating Chi Onwurah, chair of the Science and Technology Committee, by mere seconds – means a lot to Eshalomi. “I don’t just want to be the first. I want to be the first of many,” she says.

“I’m not saying that everyone should have my background. What I’m asking is for people to have empathy, to have understanding, to be willing to listen, and for us to explore some of those difficult decisions, to ask those difficult questions, to be a critical friend to the government.”

In November the Labour MP delivered a powerful speech on colleague Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill, sharing the pain her mother went through with sickle cell anaemia and the inadequate care she received. Explaining her decision to oppose the bill, she says: “There wasn’t any clear consensus between the medical [community] and judiciary, so that alone set off alarm bells.”

Throughout Committee Stage, those against the bill have raised concerns over what they see as the removal of key safeguards. “Repeatedly, we were told that there’d be safeguards with a judge-led sign off – all of that’s now been watered down.” (Leadbeater has proposed replacing the High Court judge sign-off with expert panels chaired by a senior lawyer or retired judge.)

“There’s almost been a tendency to shut down any opposing views,” Eshalomi says. “The absence of different voices and looking at the people who’ve been called to give evidence, the people that have been selected, is quite worrying.”

“It just shows that actually making laws like this is not the best way,” she adds, arguing that the legislation should never have been introduced as a Private Members’ Bill. “As MPs we should take that more seriously, especially with such a critical issue.”

The newly elected US President Donald Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has set off skirmishes in the UK, with senior Labour figures wading in, including the Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has criticised the NHS for its diversity schemes. 

“We should not be afraid of diversity and inclusion. It makes us better as a country, better as individuals and brings better policies. So I would worry if we were to roll back on that,” Eshalomi says. “I don’t think we should be looking at trying to win any culture war with Reform.”

Threats and intimidation are part and parcel of the job for MPs now, but even more so for Black female MPs. “The level of abuse that I’ve received since I’ve been an MP has been the worst. If I tweet a picture of myself and Sadiq [Khan], there’s just a barrage of racism that comes up underneath it.”

Defiant, she adds: “I’m not going to let them silence me. I’m not going to let them drive me away.”

In 2021 a man was convicted for sending Eshalomi a torrent of abusive messages. Her social media accounts are now monitored by Parliament and a staffer goes through her mail, revealing on one occasion there was a letter with “blood” on it sent to her.

All parliamentarians have been issued with panic alarms in response to increased safety fears. “For a long time I didn’t tell my husband that I walked around with a personal alarm. And then it went off in my bag, and he was like ‘What’s that?’. I knew that he would be worried – and he was,” she says.

Increased threats have forced her to change habits too. “Sometimes when I’m going home I change my route because I’m worried that someone might be following me.”

Eshalomi has spoken out about being mistaken for other Black female MPs, including the now leader of the opposition (Loto) Kemi Badenoch. Both share Nigerian heritage and first met serving together on the London Assembly.

Full of praise for the new Conservative leader – described by Eshalomi as “my secret bestie” – she says: “She should be proud of what she’s achieved. I know that her late dad would be proud as well.”

But after 100 days as Loto, it’s no secret that Badenoch has had difficulty winning the confidence of her party. “She’s struggled a bit landing her narrative and how she wants to govern. Equally I’d say that the media is always quite harsh when you’re a woman in politics, especially for a leader. I hope that she’s getting the support from her fellow MPs.”

Any advice? “Maybe stay off Twitter,” she jokes.

But a Black female leader is something the Labour Party has yet to achieve. “[It] sets the bar high for Labour. Labour’s got to do more – needs to do more.”

Keir Starmer has also had a challenging start to his premiership. “I think it’s fair to say some people may still be learning,” Eshalomi says of the government’s difficult first six months.

While supportive of the Prime Minister, she offers some frank advice: “That claim of him being quite lawyer-ish – I want him to loosen up a bit. His heart is in the right place, but equally, I want him to be true to who he is. There’s no good him pretending to be something he isn’t. We’ve just got to accept that’s who he is. Ultimately, I think he’s doing a good job with the difficult circumstances he’s inherited.” 

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