With the UK in political and economic turmoil, the Green Party have emerged as a potential alternative to the traditional two-party system that the UK is so accustomed to.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that over 13 million people are living in poverty in the UK with over 6.8 million people living in deep poverty, which is roughly one in five people and three in ten children – which is clearly unacceptable.
After years of Conservative domination, which has seen the privatisation of many major UK industries such as gas, electricity, water, transport and several other sectors, Britain has reached record levels of poverty and the cost of living has never been so high.
According to the Commonwealth, privatisation has cost the UK public nearly £200 billion to the corporate shareholders of privatised utilities but the Green Party aim to bring these industries back into public hands in order to lower bills and reduce costs.
Mark Hood, Green party Councillor for Tonbridge and leader of the Green Group at Kent County Council, said: “I’ve been to Margate a few times this week for the by-election. It’s 33 pounds to get to Margate from where I live in Tunbridge. That’s an obscene amount of money to travel from one part of my county to another
“So we’re not in favour of nationalisation, we’re in favour of regional management and ownership of public transport to reduce costs and to improve the level of service.”
Is systemic change needed in the UK?
The housing crisis is a prominent issue in the UK, and according to Shelter.org.uk, 21,463 social homes were lost in 2024/25 primarily through Right To Buy sales (which the Green Party want to permanently end) but they also found that in 1969 the UK built more social rent homes than it has in the last 13 years.
Mark Hood said: “When you look at Green-led councils they deliver.
“So if you look at Lewes Council, it’s a Lib Dem-Green Council, and that has been very, very good. It has worked very well with neighbouring councils to deliver additional housing, additional social housing, and that kind of model needs to be rolled out across the UK”
Lewes district council have recently secured 17 new council homes on the site of a former pub in Peacehaven in March 2025.
Councillor Zoe Nicholson, Leader of the Lewes District Council, said to the council’s website: “At a time when less than 25% of local authorities have built any council housing in the last ten years, Lewes District Council has completed and developed a pipeline of over 250 council properties since 2019, with other social housing projects in the pipeline.”
Unfortunately Lewes’ success has not been replicated across the country and building social houses has appeared to be on the backburner for several successive governments.
Shelter.org.uk also discovered that the eight biggest housebuilders in the country made over £7.7 billion in profit in 2021 and 2022 whilst all developers only built 5,718 social homes.
The number of unoccupied dwellings (units of accommodation that have no usual residents) in England and Wales is staggering.
The Office for National Statistics found that in March 2021 there were 1.5 million unoccupied dwellings in England which was 6.1% of all dwellings in England.
However, the Green Party have several objectives which aim to tackle this issue and alter the current system.
The fact that there are so many private owners that own multiple properties which have no usual residents, the general public would not be at fault for thinking that this has been a smack in the face to everyday, working class people.
So, according to the Greens’ manifesto, they would allow councils to buy privately owned properties at reasonable rates which would address the housing shortage caused by Right to Buy.
These measures aim to ensure that social homes remain available for local residents and to address the housing crisis by making it easier for councils to buy and manage unoccupied properties.
Stuart Heaver, Canterbury City and Kent County Councillor for the Green Party, said: ” The housing market an distribution of homes in the UK is completely and utterly dysfunctional and it does not deliver in the way it should do.
“So there does need to be radical change and not three, four, five bedroom luxury houses on farmland so they can make a huge amount of money and give it to their overseas investors while there’s still three homeless people sleeping on the streets and the council housing register does not significantly go down.
“Because again, it’s doing the bidding of big corporate interests. It’s not doing the bidding of the homeless person on the street.”
The rise in prices
One of the most alarming issues in the country is simply the unaffordability of contemporary Britain.
According to Finder.com, the average price of a house in 1990 was £53,337 compared to £268,087 in 2024 which is a 400% increase, highlighting the real struggle people face to get on the housing ladder.
The fact of the matter is that houses are simply unaffordable for the majority of the UK public.
The Office for National Statistics has said that the median house price in 2024 (£290,000) was 7.7 times the average full-time earnings of £37,600 which simply reiterates the need for a change in British politics.
Even the basics for everyday life have seen an exponential increase.
A tank of unleaded petrol was £23.10 in 1990 compared to £77.55 in 2024; a pint of beer £1.22 compared to £4.77; a loaf of bread 50p compared to £1.40 and lastly a pint of milk 31p compared to 65p.
Greens’ popularity with the younger generation
So, the Green Party have essentially marketed themselves as a vote for hope and they have seemingly offered politics of positivity and real change.
This could be the reason that the Green Party has risen in popularity amongst the younger generation as they have consistently polled first with voters aged 18-25.
Mark Hood said: “I think young people feel disenfranchised, they feel powerless, they feel like they’ve been priced out of society.
“I think people see that we are there for them, we’re interested in bringing everybody up with, you know, we’re for the 99%, unless you’re in that 1%. you don’t need to worry about it.”