Delegates today called for a mass housing investment programme, asserting that 250,000 new homes need to be built every year – for the next 20 years – to resolve the “desperate” housing shortage destroying the lives of working people around the UK.
The housing motion passed by conference also acknowledged the need to pay for such a programme, in the short-term, with increases in progressive taxes.
Introducing the motion, Mandy Berger of London region called the government’s housing policy “a fiasco”, one that was destroying communities and was “their way of clearing out the working class from our cities.”
As a result of cuts to housing benefit and the bedroom tax, councils and housing associations were reporting huge increases in rent arrears, she said, with a knock-on, negative effect on property maintenance and new build.
“The result of bedroom tax is that some streets and neighborhoods are emptying. So there is no occupancy at all.”
Phoebe Watkins of Camden Branch commented that David Cameron was perpetuating the “Thatcher legacy” by launching a new right to buy scheme, while his government’s policies had led to an increase in homelessness.
In London, she said, “young people on the minimum wage, working fulltime, can’t afford to rent a shared flat in any borough of the city.”
And delegates from as far afield as Preston, Cornwall, Aberdeenshire and Liverpool itself offered evidence that the problems are nationwide.
The NEC’s John Gray referred to Housing Voice’s assertion of the need for 250,000 new homes built each year.
And he said that history showed just how achievable that target was – reminding delegates that between 1945-50, despite the economic ravages of WWII, the Labour government built one million new homes, and that in the 1950s it was not uncommon for 300,000 new homes to be built every year.
“There is a desperate housing shortage,” said Mr Gray, “and no good reason for it.”
The motion also called for:
- the compulsory licensing and regulation of all landlords, social and private;
- strict enforcement of repair standards;
- fair and reasonable rents for all;
- local housing allowances and benefit caps to reflect “the reality of living in high-rent areas”;
- Labour Link to consider advocating such policies on a regional and national level.
