MODERN society pushes us to emphasise difference, setting communities against each other, which strengthens the position of the ruling elite and maintains the status quo.

While diversity is something to celebrate — fuelling fairness, creativity and progress — too often it is used as a weapon, with discrimination and division the result. Yet most of the challenges we face cut across all backgrounds, reminding us that common struggles outweigh what separates us.

One of the most urgent of these is the fight for shelter — a basic human right which is being undermined in Northamptonshire due to the actions of Reform-led West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).

Rising homelessness

Britain is the world’s sixth-richest economy, but homelessness is on the rise. Government figures show a 20 per cent increase in rough sleeping between 2023 and 2024. The Financial Times revealed that one in 200 UK households has no secure home, making Britain the world’s worst for homelessness — although it must be noted temporary accommodation and shelters prevent as many homeless people living on the streets in comparison with countries such as the US.

The causes of homelessness are rarely individual failings. They include a lack of affordable housing, rising unemployment, welfare cuts and domestic abuse. The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 requires councils to take proactive steps to prevent homelessness and to support those who are already homeless. Councils must also prioritise the most vulnerable individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, such as people with disabilities.

According to Shelter, West Northamptonshire suffers some of the highest levels of homelessness in the East Midlands. WNC’s own data recorded 632 individuals and families living in temporary housing and 106 rough sleepers in 2023, yet the council had only 40 suitable supported accommodation units.

For years, the Northampton Association for Accommodation for Single Homeless (NAASH) has been a lifeline, offering temporary accommodation, funded by WNC. Earlier this year, the council delayed resident housing benefit payments, questioning the “validity” of claims NAASH makes on their behalf. This forced NAASH into liquidation and has left over 200 people facing the streets unless alternative accommodation can be found. “It shows a disturbing prioritisation of money over people’s welfare,” said NAASH service director Theresa Kelly.

Local campaigners with Northampton Against the Cuts (NAC) are fighting back. Secretary James Treliving said NAASH’s closure is the result of the council’s refusal to negotiate. He noted that landlords who had worked with NAASH no longer trust WNC due to withholding benefit payments, undermining future co-operation and availability of temporary accommodation.

He added: “The council must be held responsible for the impact this has had — not only on the 200 residents, but also on the staff, who’ve faced unbearable uncertainty.”

Even though NAASH has now been forced to close, campaigners remain committed to supporting each displaced resident and challenging WNC. NAC is campaigning to save local community hubs and condemns WNC’s decision to scrap previously agreed net-zero targets — actions that clearly demonstrate how Reform’s short-term populist policies come at a cost to future generations.

Forced from home, not by choice

Another group under attack in Northamptonshire is asylum-seekers. People seeking asylum do so only when violence, persecution or danger force them to flee. Many arrive in Britain by circumstance rather than design, often after perilous journeys. While the English language is a factor in why asylum-seekers choose Britain, Britain is not the top destination: Germany, France, Italy and Spain all received more asylum applications in 2024, according to the Home Office.

Councils such as WNC are required to accommodate asylum-seekers as part of the British dispersal system. Legal challenges to block the use of hotels make no difference to the numbers arriving in Britain, as the Home Office still has a duty under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to provide asylum.

WNC’s own leader admitted that such court actions are “very costly to taxpayers” and therefore a poor use of local funds. Epping Forest District Council had its injunction to prevent use of the Bell Hotel for asylum-seeker accommodation overturned by the Court of Appeal and are still pursing legal action at great expense.

Currently, around 200 asylum-seekers are housed in the Ibis Hotel at Crick. They had no say in where they were placed. After one resident was charged with sexual assault, the far-right group Great British National Protest, supported by Reform UK, staged a demonstration outside the hotel — targeting innocent people and spreading fear.

Reform Watch Northants, a local monitoring group, has been exposing how Reform UK exploits such incidents to sow division. Northampton and District Trades Council (NTUC) chair and Reform Watch member Russell Hickman said: “The safety of women and girls is being cynically manipulated by the right, aided by a compliant media and too many politicians. Reform’s record on workers’ rights and environmental protections shows who they truly serve — big business and the fossil fuel industry.”

To show another side of Northamptonshire, Reform Watch, Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council, and NTUC recently organised a solidarity event for Ibis residents. With food, music and activities, highlighting that most local people are compassionate, rejecting politics of hate.

Solidarity across struggles

Recognising Northamptonshire’s multicultural character is essential, on August 30, over 100 people from various trade unions and community groups across Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes came together to defend asylum-seekers housed in a Deanshanger hotel.

This followed news that the Great British National Protest planned to hold a demonstration outside the premises.

Local resident Louise, who organised the counter-protest, said: “I don’t want to grow up in a society where the Union flag is used in this way. He [Conor Sadler, Great British National Protest organiser] is causing a lot of trouble in our area, and he is not welcome. They [the hotel residents] are welcome!”

Indeed, Deanshanger Parish Council deemed the protest unwelcome, stating: “A protest against the country’s immigration and asylum policy should be directed at the Home Office and the government, not at individual hotels, where demonstrations are likely to bring fear and intimidation to those staying in the hotel and to the local community.”

Recently, Northampton Trades Union Council, NAC and Northampton climate activists from “1000 Voices” united in support of asylum-seekers ahead of a full council meeting. At the meeting, a motion was proposed by a Conservative councillor, calling for continued action regarding the council’s stance on the ongoing use of hotels in Crick and Deanshanger.

Speaking to the BBC, Anjona Roy, branch secretary of NTUC, said the issue of asylum-seeker hotels had become a “political football.” Roy also said “I expect more from our political leaders. I expect them to be treating all human beings in West Northamptonshire with dignity and respect, regardless of whether they’re asylum-seekers, refugees, or whether they’re not [and] I don’t think that’s happening.”

Could become a reality for any of us

Homelessness or the need to claim asylum could become a reality for any of us. One only needs to look at the war in Ukraine to understand how quickly circumstances can change.

In 2023, the UN recorded at least 5.2 million refugees from Ukraine across Europe, and in 2024, Depaul International reported a sharp rise in homelessness within the country.

Failing to show humanity and solidarity towards those in need — and allowing the erosion of services that protect the most vulnerable — could be something society looks back on with deep regret.

WNC and other local authorities that seek to blame minorities and cut public services must be held to account. Struggles are often shared across our international and multicultural society — and, as history shows, so too must be our resistance against the rise of fascism.