It’s the coldest time of the year, and Bristol’s housing and homelessness crisis – the sharp end of which includes people being left with no choice but to sleep on the streets – is as bleak as ever.
How does it feel to be in that situation? This week, Neil Maggs puts that question to someone who, unusually, has experienced both rough sleeping and being part of our city’s political establishment – Paul Goggin, who was Bristol’s Lord Mayor from 2023 to 2024.
Paul, who is a Labour councillor for Hartcliffe and Withywood, spent a period sleeping rough in the mid-2000s following a relationship breakdown soon after he moved to Bristol. The native East Londoner has also been public about his struggles with mental ill-health, including bipolar disorder, and was supported by local charity Second Step into settled accommodation in the form of a council bungalow in Knowle West.
How have those experiences influenced Paul’s journey into local politics, and to the position he currently holds as Labour’s spokesperson on housing and homelessness. Did the party, now in opposition to the leading Green group on the council, do enough to tackle the housing crisis during its eight years in power under Mayor Marvin Rees? And can struggling councils like Bristol really do much about homelessness now, faced as they are with the legacy of decades of government underinvestment in building and maintaining social housing?
There are never any easy answers to questions about housing, which has been arguably the defining issue in Bristol for 10 years now. So you’ll be pleased to know that doesn’t take up the whole of this week’s episode.
We also get into Paul’s personal journey back from a serious health emergency midway through his stint as Lord Mayor, the standing ovation he received on his return, and his spicier moments in the council chamber… like that time he broke a gavel while scolding a fellow councillor.
And with south Bristol the scene of some shockingly low voter turnouts, we get into Labour’s performance since the general election – and fears that Nigel Farage’s Reform Party could soon be targeting seats like Paul’s.
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