Fraser McGuire, a member of the Young Labour national committee, writes on what a Labour government ought to do to address the housing crisis.
“By the time I turn 21, I will have spent nearly £20,000 on rent, which is almost the same amount I have made working in total since I was 16- and there are hundreds of thousands of young people facing the same issue.”
With Rishi Sunak having announced that a General Election will be taking place in 2024, the Labour leadership will undoubtedly be preparing a raft of policy plans and implementation strategies as they seek to create an image of a ‘government in waiting’. The shadow frontbench has embraced Rachel Reeves’ rhetoric of “fiscal responsibility” and dropped several crucial spending commitments on climate change and housing- both areas which failed to make it onto the priorities ballot at national party conference in October this year.
The scale of the housing crisis in this country is hard to overstate, and if Labour fails to effectively tackle the deep-rooted issues in housing in their first term it will be extremely damaging when they run for a second. Labour must go far further than the Conservatives on housing policy, as a failure to take significant steps in increasing council house stock, empowering local authorities to build more affordable homes, and supporting private renters will mean a failure to make a dent in the monolithic crisis in housing.
At Labour conference in Liverpool this November, Keir Starmer pledged to build 1.5 million homes in Labour’s first term in government. While an improvement on the current situation, this policy matches the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge to build 300,000 houses a year, and there is a concerning lack of commitment to ensuring that new houses built will be affordable and under local authority control. The private sector cannot be trusted to provide quality housing for renters, or to build homes at a necessary rate- between 2007 and 2021 the private housebuilding sector only built 1.5 million homes, many of which were unaffordable and became private rental stock.
It was positive to see commitments to devolving greater powers on housing and planning to mayoral authorities and fast-tracking brownfield developments, but these policies need to be pushed further otherwise they will just be tinkering around the edges for the millions of people being affected by housing issues. What Labour needs to do, is formulate a commitment to building 100,000 council houses each year, which was in the 2019 manifesto, combined with a policy of ending the Thatcherite ‘Right to Buy’ which has massively depleted council house stock. The housing crisis has worsened significantly since 2019, and these progressive policies are needed now more than ever.
Tenants are being punished by a lack of regulations on rogue landlords and rent increases, as well as failings to properly enforce regulations on landlords who are repeat offenders. These issues also disproportionately punish young people, with most young workers spending over half their salary on rent, and the average university student spending more on rent than they get in maintenance loan annually. By the time I turn 21, I will have spent nearly £20,000 on rent, which is almost the same amount I have made working in total since I was 16- and there are hundreds of thousands of young people facing the same issue. To fix this crisis, Labour should commit to more radical policies on regulating private landlords- such as ending no-fault evictions and holding landlords accountable for dangerous accommodation.
An incredible report this year revealed that the average first time buyer in late 2026 will be paying £313 less per month on their mortgage than they would be paying on rent, showing how the crisis extends into the mortgage system as well as the private rental sector. Caps on rent will protect tenants from unfair increases and create a less predatory system of private renting while the government can work on increasing council house stock to undo decades of decline.
As a student and private renter, the prospects of the next Labour government significantly tackling the housing crisis seem to be becoming more dismal as we approach the next election. However, right now community organisations and tenants’ unions are on the front line in organising against our unsustainable housing model. We must continue the fight for a different system and step-up pressure on the Labour leadership, who may well be running the country in less than a years’ time, to commit to genuine transformative change in our broken housing system.
Labour Campaign for Council Housing 