Crisis is the ground in which innovation and progress can flourish if fertilised by courageous leadership and watered by a collective commitment to embracing risk to find replicable solutions that tackle the complexity, severity, and scale of the crisis. 

This blog is pulled from the script of Jez Sweetland’s recent TEDX Bristol talk, which will be released in March 2023. Find out why we’re in the crisis we’re in, and how to fix it through collective leadership. We all have a part to play if we’re to build dignity back into our housing system.

At a time when we are deeply troubled by the news of thousands of children being killed in the Middle East & many more thousands displaced from their homes, the warm fuzziness that we’re ‘supposed’ to feel at Christmas seems at best irrelevant and, at worst, offensive. However, we must hold onto a vision for change that means we commit to build a route out of the emergency we are in.

The financial cost of temporary accommodation in England is huge. £1.7 billion a year in England alone, a 62% increase over the past 5 years. It’s sending some local authorities to the brink, it’s unaffordable and has an obvious knock-on effect on local services. Although we are angry it isn’t working as it should, we are also full of hope that it can change and become a short, safe and healthy experience for those who need it.