A letter to our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham

Dear Prime Minister,

Congratulations on your appointment, and we look forward to seeing positive changes to our communities during your leadership.

I am writing on behalf of the Black Equity Organisation, a national civil rights charity dedicated to dismantling systemic racism, and improving the lives of Black communities in the UK. Through our work on justice, housing, health, education and economic empowerment, we have worked with communities, policymakers, and partners to advance practical solutions to racial inequality.

As your government sets out its priorities, I would urge you to make justice for the Windrush generation a key priority. Despite repeated commitments to right the wrongs of the Windrush Scandal, many survivors continue to face barriers to securing the justice they were promised. Delivering justice for the Windrush generation would demonstrate this government’s commitment to restoring trust and ensuring that those harmed receive deserved justice.

Difficulties with the Windrush Compensation Scheme are clearly shown in the statistics collected by the Home Office. At the end of February 2025, the data showed that from the start of the scheme a total 9,848 claims had been received and that 9,165 decisions had been made. Several of the claims were deemed not to be eligible or had been withdrawn leaving 8,398 eligible claims to be decided. Of those eligible claims, 5,373 claimants were told they had no entitlement to compensation. Just 3,025 eligible claims resulted in an offer of compensation – only around 36%.

BEO and other racial justice organisations continue to press for a fundamental overhaul of the scheme so that eligible claims are assessed fairly and independently. Through our ongoing engagement with the Windrush Compensation Scheme, including quarterly meetings to raise systemic concerns, we continue to hear first-hand from claimants about the barriers they face in securing fair and timely compensation.

The failures of the compensation scheme are reflected in wider, long-term harms experienced by Windrush survivors. We recently launched our report Homes Lost, Lives Shattered: The Windrush Housing Scandal. This report examines the profound and lasting housing-related consequences of that failure. Without urgent action, Windrush survivors will continue to face displacement, instability, and the erosion of the lives they built in Britain. The impact goes far beyond one generation: inaction entrenches intergenerational disadvantage – in an already unequal Britain – and signals that the state bears no obligation to remedy the harms it has caused.

Key recommendations from our report include:

• All councils and housing departments should implement mandatory Windrush training and written guidance funded by central government and monitored by a dedicated Windrush task force in each council. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) should oversee compliance and use its enforcement powers where authorities fall short.
• The government should abolish the Right to Rent scheme as it has been found to cause discrimination and harm to Windrush survivors and ethnic minorities at large in the private rented sector.
• The government should establish an independent body to administer the Windrush Compensation Scheme, and the compensation scheme should not be administered by the Home Office.
• The Windrush Commissioner and the Home Office should work with African High Commissions to notify and assist African Windrush survivors, especially those locked out of the UK.
• The Windrush community has been awaiting justice for decades. Your government has an opportunity to finally deliver the justice that has been promised for so long. We hope you will work with us and other Windrush organisations to ensure that justice is finally served.

Yours sincerely,

Timi Okuwa

CEO, Black Equity Organisation