Engels and the housing question 150 years on: A roundtable discussion

How far does the current housing crisis resemble the housing question as Friedrich Engels analysed it 150 years ago? Three housing experts, Linda Clarke, Michael Edwards and Paul Watt, explored this question in a panel discussion at the Marx Memorial Library on 30 January 2023, chaired by Marjorie Mayo, editor of Theory and Struggle. They pointed to the continuing relevance of much of Engels’s approach, rooted in a Marxist analysis of industrialisation, urbanisation and conflicting class interests in relation to land ownership, property development and the housing crisis. Market forces continue to drive so many people out of city centres, for a start. The panellists then went on to identify some of the issues that Engels missed (particularly the role of the construction industry) as well as some of the issues that were not so evident in Engels’s time, such as the changing nature of state intervention, the roles of local authorities and the unions, and the increasing influence of the financial sector. The discussion concluded by focusing on what a progressive government could be doing to ensure that decent housing is provided as a right, and how to link housing struggles with wider struggles, fighting for a more sustainable future for us all.