Reflections on the 2025 Far-Right Riots: What should we be doing now?

Written by Mushtaq Khan

The far-right riots that erupted across several UK towns and cities in late summer 2024 were both shocking and unsurprising. Triggered by a toxic blend of misinformation, social media messaging, economic discontent, and growing social divisions, the violence laid bare the fragility of community cohesion and the growing influence of extremist narratives in everyday spaces—including social housing estates.

Housing Diversity Network were the only organisation in the sector to issue a checklist of what landlords should be doing in the short-, and medium- and long-terms.

Almost 12 months on from the riots we now have the chance to assess what we’ve done and move beyond a reactive and legalistic response to reassess our role not only as landlords but as community anchors. The initial legal response—through anti-social behaviour orders, injunctions, or eviction notices—may have addressed the visible aftermath of riots but did little to counteract the deeper social fractures or prevent future unrest. The riots were not just a breakdown of law and order; they were a rupture in social cohesion. And it is this cohesion that housing organisations must now urgently work to rebuild.

Beyond Compliance

Over the past year, many housing organisations, spurred on by the regulatory pressures have focused on compliance and risk mitigation. While necessary, this approach has often meant that community engagement, anti-racism work, and local partnerships have been deprioritised. The Regulator’s emphasis on listening to tenants is a step forward, but the sector has not done enough to embed this into day-to-day practice. Tenant satisfaction surveys and focus groups alone cannot counteract the alienation many residents feel, especially in marginalised communities disproportionately affected by far-right and Islamophobic rhetoric and its consequences.

I have always been a proponent of housing organisations being more than just landlords. I really like the work of housing associations like Calico and Acis, who use their presence to deliver a range of services to improve the lives of their residents. Housing organisations are uniquely placed to act as early warning systems and community builders. Many of the neighbourhoods where the rioters were drawn from had long-standing issues: industrial decline, disinvestment, social exclusion, lack of youth provision, and a vacuum of community participation at a local level. Into this void, stepped far-right actors using social media to spread their toxic message. Their narratives, however poisonous we think they are, offer belonging, identity, and blame—all potent in places where people feel that their lives haven’t got better.

What Should Have Been Done in the Last 12 Months?

The warning signs were there, over years if not decades. We have normalised the scapegoating of migrants and Muslims, in the main, to distract from policy failures to tackle inequality and poverty. Instances of hate speech, low-level intimidation, and dog-whistle politics have been steadily rising especially since the Brexit referendum. Over the past year, I would have liked to see housing organisations prioritise several key actions:

1. Proactive Community Engagement: Rather than waiting for tensions to boil over, providers should have invested in local relationship-building. This includes visible leadership at estate level, community connectors embedded in neighbourhoods, and proactive dialogue with residents—not just when things go wrong.
2. Anti-Racism and Hate Crime Training: Boards and frontline staff alike need training not just in the Equality Act, but in recognising and responding to organised hate. That includes understanding the symbols, language, and tactics of the far right—not to replicate law enforcement, but to be informed community leaders.
3. Partnerships with Civil Society and Faith Groups: Many of the most effective local responses riots will come from alliances between housing associations, local mosques, churches, youth groups, and anti-racist campaigners. These partnerships need to be built before crises, not during them.
4. Investment in Youth Work and Inclusion Projects: Cuts to youth services have left a generation vulnerable to online radicalisation and local disaffection. Housing providers should have championed and funded youth clubs, creative initiatives, and intergenerational work on estates—especially where statutory services have retreated.
5. Tenant Empowerment, Not Just Consultation: The sector talks a lot about listening to tenants, but the last 12 months should have seen a shift towards power-sharing. This includes supporting resident-led scrutiny, participatory budgeting, and spaces where diverse tenant voices are amplified, particularly those at risk of being scapegoated.
6. Responding to Reform: We should continue to lead with confidence and not caution. We have been thinking ourselves about reframing some of our work as promoting fair access and enhancing local pride, and this is the opportunity for you to think about how you deliver truly people-centric services.

Compassion Over Control

It is tempting, in the face of unrest, to fall back on security-first responses: more CCTV, stricter tenancies, rapid legal action. But these can create an atmosphere of surveillance and fear, especially for minority communities already under pressure. Social housing must be more than a service—it must be a social mission. That means taking a stand, visibly and unapologetically, against racism, xenophobia, and hate. Not in the abstract, but in the daily practices of housing management: in how complaints are handled, how staff are trained, and how organisational values are lived.

The Role of Boards and Leaders

Leadership matters. Boards must reflect the communities they serve and be equipped to deal with the moral and political challenges that events like the 2024 riots represent. Diversity at board level isn’t a tick-box exercise—it’s essential for legitimacy and informed decision-making. Executive teams must also be accountable not only for compliance and performance but for social impact and community cohesion. This requires a cultural shift, where community investment is not seen as a cost centre but as core business.

Boards are there to lead and it’s essential that they don’t let the far-right define the terms of this conversation.

Looking Forward: Building Resilient Communities

The far-right riots of 2024 will remain a painful chapter. But they should also be a wake-up call. Housing organisations must reimagine their role—not just as landlords, but as stewards of place, facilitators of belonging, and defenders of dignity. This work is slow, relational, and often invisible—but it is the most important work we do.

As we reflect on the past year, one truth becomes clear: community resilience is not built in the courtroom. It is built in conversations, in trust, in courage—and in choosing every day to stand on the side of inclusion, not indifference.