Photos of Protesters Marching Against the UK's Anti-Public Housing Bill

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Photos of Protesters Marching Against the UK's Anti-Public Housing Bill

Sunday saw another mass howl of anguish against the housing crisis.

This post originally appeared on VICE UK

The government says its new housing bill is supposed to "turn generation rent into generation buy." Which, granted, sounds OK. However, thousands of people aren't convinced that the government plans to be as altruistic as it makes out, so they marched through London on Sunday chanting that they want to "kill the bill."

If it's passed in the form the government intends, the bill will see "pay to stay" measures imposed. This would mean that those living in public housing and earning more than $43,000—or $58,000 in London—would have to pay the market rate for rent. Also, the right to stay in public housing indefinitely—to make it a home, in other words—would be scrapped, with tenancies reviewed every five years. That means we could see mass evictions and people displaced far away from where they want to live. Campaigners say it could effectively kill off public housing for good.

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We sent photographer Chris Bethell to capture the anger of people who don't want our cities to become gated communities for oligarchs.

Follow Chris on Twitter.