Dear Prime Minister, make the right to food and housing a reality

Across the UK, people want many of the same things – a safe place to call home, food they can afford, decent work, strong communities and the dignity that comes from knowing life’s essentials are within reach.

Yet for millions of us, those basics are becoming harder to secure.

It does not have to be this way.

At Amnesty International UK, we believe that access to food and housing are not privileges. They are human rights.

That is why, as Andy Burnham begins his time in office, we are asking the new Prime Minister to commit to two foundations of a fairer Britain – the right to food and the right to housing.

When Andy Burnham last sat around the Cabinet table in 2010, there were around 35 food banks in the UK. Today, there are over 2,700.[1]

Behind those numbers are real people. Parents going without meals. Workers relying on emergency food parcels. Pensioners cutting back on essentials. Communities doing everything they can to fill gaps that government should never have allowed to emerge.

Over the past year, Amnesty International UK as part of the Right to Food UK Commission[2] has heard evidence from people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The message has been consistent and powerful – hunger is not inevitable. It is the result of political choices.

Food insecurity is not caused by a lack of food. It is caused by poverty.

The UK recognised the right to food in international human rights law decades ago, yet it has never been put into law in this country. As a result, governments can make decisions that affect our ability to afford food without being properly held accountable.

That should change.

A Right to Food Act would create a legal duty for governments and public authorities to ensure everyone can access adequate, nutritious and affordable food. It would move us away from a system that relies on charity and emergency support and towards one based on dignity, accountability and rights.

No one in the UK should go to bed hungry or have to depend on food banks to survive.

A fair society cannot exist when people are unable to afford a secure place to live.

Across the country, renters are seeing housing costs swallow an ever-greater share of their income. Too many people are being pushed into poverty simply because housing has become unaffordable.

For many of us, rent rises mean cutting back on food and other essentials. For others, it means debt, overcrowding or the constant fear of homelessness.

Housing and food insecurity are deeply connected. When rent consumes most of a family's income, something else has to give.

We need a housing system that works for us all, not one that leaves millions of us struggling to keep a roof over our heads.

That means ensuring housing support reflects the real cost of renting. It means exploring measures that improve affordability and security for tenants. And it means treating adequate housing as a human right that deserves the same protection and political attention as other essentials.

Everyone deserves a safe, secure and affordable home.

These asks are not about political ideology. They are about the kind of country we want to build.

A fair country to live in is one where nobody skips meals because they cannot afford food, where rent does not swallow most of a person's pay packet, and where everyone can live with dignity.

We know change is possible because we have seen it happen. Progress does not come about simply because politicians choose to act. It happens because people organise, campaign and demand better.

Amnesty supporters, alongside communities, campaigners and partner organisations across the country, have helped secure important progress in recent years, from influencing plans to end homelessness to challenging policies that would have pushed more people into poverty.

Prime Minister, you inherit significant challenges. But you also inherit an opportunity.

You can help create a country where nobody is forced to choose between paying rent and buying food.

You can help shift the conversation from charity to rights.

The evidence is clear. The need is urgent. And the solutions are within reach.

[1] House of Commons Library: Food banks in the UK (17 June 2026): https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8585/

[2] Right to Food Commission: https://www.ianbyrne.org/rtfcommission