“So in other words what’s happened is this… the political party which created this part of the welfare state (council housing), cut it off at its knees – and – they didn’t build any more.”.
This is a speech by our member Paul Watt, from 2016. It gives a good overview of the disastrous housing policies of New Labour at a time they were barring councils from applying for social housing grant, blackmailing councils into ‘transferring’ stock to housing associations and continuing with Right to Buy. During the New Labour government’s tenure in office the number of council homes in England fell by 1.68 million.
It wasn’t until the Great Crash in 2007 that Labour allowed councils to bid for social housing grant again, under their National Affordable Homes Programme.
Anybody concerned with the housing crisis will find it interesting but those who did not live through that period, more so.
Labour Campaign for Council Housing 