There is no starker symbol of the failing housing
system than the horror of the Grenfell Tower fire.
A Labour government will bring system-wide change,
so that a tragedy like Grenfell never happens again.
We will introduce a £1 billion Fire Safety Fund to fit
sprinklers and other fire safety measures in all high rise council and housing association tower blocks,
enforce the replacement of dangerous Grenfell style cladding on all high-rise homes and buildings,
while introducing mandatory building standards and
guidance, inspected and enforced by fully trained
Fire and Rescue Service fire safety officers.
Grenfell Tower was the confirmation of a more far reaching crisis. Everyone knows of someone affected
by the housing crisis: younger people unable to buy
a first home, renters trapped in damp flats, families
stuck on council waiting lists, leasehold home-owners
hit by unfair fees, people who are homeless living and
dying on our streets. The gap between the housing haves and have-nots is at the heart
of the injustice in our country today.
Since 2010, the Conservatives have
slashed funding for new homes,
refused to regulate for higher standards
and given a free hand to commercial
property developers. There are fewer
new homes for social rent, a million
more households stuck renting from
a private landlord, 900,000 fewer
young people owning a home and
more than twice as many people
sleeping on our streets.
Only Labour has a plan to fix the
housing crisis.
We will act on every front
to bring the cost of housing down and
standards up, so that everyone has a
decent, affordable place to call home.
Labour will create a new Department
for Housing, make Homes England a
more accountable national housing
agency and put councils in the driving
seat. We will set out a strategy for a
flourishing construction sector with a
skilled workforce and full rights at work.
Labour will set up a new English
Sovereign Land Trust, with powers to
buy land more cheaply for low-cost
housing. We will use public land to build
this housing, not sell it off to the highest
bidder.
Developers will face new ‘use
it or lose it’ taxes on stalled housing
developments. We will keep the Land
Registry in public hands, and make
ownership of land more transparent.
We will make brownfield sites the
priority for development and protect
the green belt.
Labour will tackle the climate crisis and
cut energy bills by introducing a tough,
new zero-carbon homes standard for
all new homes, and upgrading millions
of existing homes to make them more
energy efficient.
We will review the
planning guidance for developments
in flood risk areas.
Council and Social Homes
The only way to deliver on everyone’s
right to a good home is to build publicly
funded social housing.
Labour will deliver a new social
house building programme of more than
a million homes over a decade, with
council housing at its heart. By the end
of the Parliament we will be building
at an annual rate of at least 150,000
council and social homes, with 100,000
of these built by councils for social rent
in the biggest council house building
programme in more than a generation.
We will establish a new duty on councils
to plan and build these homes in their
area, and fund them to do so, with
backing from national government.
We will scrap the Conservatives’ bogus
definition of ‘affordable’, set as high
as 80% of market rents, and replace it
with a definition linked to local incomes.
These council and housing association
homes will be more affordable than
market housing and built to higher
standards.
We will end the conversion
of office blocks to homes that
sidestep planning permission
through ‘permitted development’.
We will stop the haemorrhage of low cost homes by ending the right to
buy, along with the forced conversion
of social rented homes to so-called
‘affordable rent’.
We will review the case
for reducing the amount of housing
debt councils currently hold. And we will
give councils the powers and funding to
buy back homes from private landlords.
We will give tenants a stronger say in
the management of their homes and
stop social cleansing by making sure
regeneration only goes ahead when
it has the consent of residents, and
that all residents are offered a new
property on the same site and terms.
We will fund a new Decent Homes
programme to bring all council and
housing association homes up to a
good standard.
Home Ownership
Under the Tories, home ownership is
getting further out of reach for more
and more people.
Numbers of new
affordable homes to buy have fallen,
and fewer younger people can afford
their own home.
We will build more
low-cost homes reserved for first-time
buyers in every area, including Labour’s
new discount homes with prices linked
to local incomes.
We will reform Help to Buy to focus
it on first-time buyers on ordinary
incomes.
We will introduce a levy on
overseas companies buying housing,
while giving local people ‘first dibs’
on new homes built in their area.
We will bring empty homes back into use
by giving councils new powers to tax
properties empty for over a year.
Labour will end the scandal of leasehold
for the millions who have bought their
home but don’t feel like they own it.
We will end the sale of new leasehold
properties, abolish unfair fees and
conditions, and give leaseholders the
right to buy their freehold at a price
they can afford. We will introduce
equivalent rights for freeholders on
privately owned estates.
Private Renters
More than 11 million people rent from a
private landlord and many of them are
at the sharp end of the housing crisis.
We will take urgent action to protect
private renters through rent controls,
open-ended tenancies, and new,
binding minimum standards.
Labour will stop runaway rents by
capping them with inflation, and give
cities powers to cap rents further.
We will give renters the security they
need to make their rented housing a
home, with new open-ended tenancies
to stop unfair, ‘no fault’ evictions.
We
will make sure every property is up to
scratch with new minimum standards,
enforced through nationwide licensing
and tougher sanctions for landlords who
flout the rules.
We will fund new renters’
unions in every part of the country – to
allow renters to organise and defend
their rights.
We will get rid of the discriminatory
rules that require landlords to check
people’s immigration status or that
allow them to exclude people on
housing benefit.
We will give councils
new powers to regulate short-term lets
through companies such as Airbnb.
Homelessness
No one should sleep without a roof
over their head in one of the richest
countries in the world. But under the
Tories, the number of people sleeping
rough has more than doubled.
Over 125,000 children are now living in
temporary accommodation, without a
home to call their own – or the space
they need to thrive.
Labour will tackle
the root causes of rising homelessness
with more affordable homes and
stronger rights for renters. Labour will end rough sleeping within
five years, with a national plan driven by
a prime minister-led task force. We will
expand and upgrade hostels, turning
them into places where people can
turn their lives around. We will make
available 8,000 additional homes for
people with a history of rough sleeping.
We will tackle the wider causes of
homelessness, raising the Local
Housing Allowance in line with the 30th
percentile of local rents, and earmarking
an additional £1 billion a year for
councils’ homelessness services.
We will bring in a new national levy on
second homes used as holiday homes
to help deal with the homelessness
crisis, so that those who have done well
from the housing market pay a bit more
to help those with no home.
We will save lives this winter by
ensuring extra shelters and support are
in place in all areas. And we’ll repeal the
Vagrancy Act and amend antisocial
behaviour legislation to stop the law
being used against people because
they are homeless.
(Long post but what a brilliant housing manifesto. Restoring the political duty to decent homes for all is key. If this is implemented we will solve the housing crisis in Newham and elsewhere. I have put bold emphasis and underlined what I think are the most key commitments)
