Samir Jeraj - Freelance Journalist | Writing words that matter to make change

‘Come What May, We’re Here to Stay’ by Taj Ali review

Posted: November 11, 2026 in articles

For History Today I reviewed Taj Ali’s excellent book on the history of British South Asian activism.

Taj Ali’s book begins with the violent assault of a South Asian man in Hartlepool while onlookers cheer, one of them shouting ‘a Paki got banged’. In nearby Middlesbrough a group of white men establish a checkpoint to interrogate the ethnicity of passing drivers. These disturbing scenes are not from decades past, but from the 2024 race riots that shook the UK.

Those riots were the most recent incarnation of a hostility towards people of colour that has recurred throughout modern British history. Britain was afflicted by significant outbreaks of racist violence in 1919, 1948, 1958, the early 1960s, 1979, throughout the 1980s, and again in 2001. As Ali shows, British South Asians have responded through community organising, ranging from campaigns for Indian independence to street defence patrols mounted by assorted Asian youth groups.

Read the full article online.

Power Struggles: Green Energy’s Missing Workers

Posted: October 26, 2026 in articles, environment

For the Green European Journal I looked at how the move towards renewables is interacting with worker’s rights.

Europe is, slowly, moving along the transition to green energy. In 2025, just over 9 per cent of the EU’s electricity came from coal and in the first three months of 2026, close to half came from renewable sources.

For a continent that has repeatedly come face to face with the economic, security, and environmental risks of relying on fossil fuels, this transition is both urgent and crucial. However, the question of whether it is a “just transition” is still open, particularly when it comes to the rights of the workers who are being affected as Europe’s economy shifts towards renewables.

Read the full story here.

‘No organisation can solve this housing crisis alone’: how partners are tackling bigger problems together

Posted: October 6, 2026 in articles, housing, local government

For Inside Housing Management, I spoke to housing associations and councils about how they work in partnership in order to deliver better housing outcomes.

In 2019, Chelmsford’s planning department identified that the city needed more housing for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community, and they had a site in mind. However, there was a spanner in the works: the council did not have the necessary expertise to deliver and manage this kind of specialist housing.

It turned to Delta Housing (then called CHP), one of its key partners, to see if the housing association could help.

Read the full piece here.

What is behind the sector-wide fall in rent arrears?

Posted: May 14, 2026 in articles, housing, local government

For Inside Housing Management, I looked at why rent arrears are falling during a cost of living crisis.

“Year on year, our spend on our homes is more, which means that things like service charge increases go up”, says Neal Ackcral, chief operating officer at housing association The Hyde Group, “and obviously the rent is a huge bill for our customers as well.”

The cost of living crisis has only intensified these increases, according to Mr Ackcral, while a significant migration of residents from housing benefit to Universal Credit (UC) has posed its own challenges.

As the struggles stacked up, Hyde made a critical decision – to move towards an early intervention system to tackle rent arrears, driven by data.

Read the full piece here.

Awaab’s Law: how are social landlords handling the new legislation?

Posted: February 26, 2026 in articles, health, housing

As a follow up to my July 2025 piece for Inside Housing Management on preparations for Awaab’s Law coming into force, I spoke to housing associations about how it was going four months on.

Read the full article here.

‘Don’t panic’: how housing providers can handle cyberattacks

Posted: January 15, 2026 in articles, cybersecurity, housing

Cyberattacks are now an endemic fact of modern digital life. For Inside Housing Management, I looked at how housing associations are responding to this threat.

Read the full article here.

60 years on: the story of the Race Relations Act 1965

Posted: October 14, 2025 in articles, housing

For Inside Housing magazine, I wrote about the 1965 Race Relations Act, the first piece of race equality legislation in the UK.

Sixty years ago, a Labour government was facing pressure to restrict migration. Race relations were at a low point following a series of race riots over the preceding years, protests against discrimination and a shock 1964 election defeat in Smethwick, where Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths defeated the incumbent Labour MP using the slogan “if you want a n***** for a neighbour, vote Labour”.

Read the full article here.