Step up the campaign for 90,000+ social rent homes a year

18,000 social rent homes a year does not make a ‘social rent revolution’

The Ministry of Housing has announced that its £39 billion programme over 10 years will fund 180,000 social rent homes. They call this a ‘social rent revolution’. 18,000 social rent homes a year is no sort of revolution. When you factor in Right to Buy sales and demolitions, the ‘net additional’ numbers will be even less. As one housing journalist said, “The scale of investment pales by comparison with the scale of housing need…”

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The National Housing Federation and some others declared the £39 billion was ‘transformational’. The news today shows how false this was. With 127,890 households in temporary accommodation and 1.3 million households on the waiting list, 18,000 social rent homes a year will do little to address this acute crisis.

Shelter and a wide range of other organisations have campaigned for 90,000 social rent homes a year as necessary to begin to resolve the housing crisis. The Labour Campaign for Council Housing has campaigned for 100,000 council homes a year and ending the disastrous Right to Buy policy. Labour conferences have voted for this.

The gulf between the government’s programme and the scale of housing need makes it necessary that the demand for a large scale council house building/acquisitions programme is debated at this year’s Labour conference. We will be campaigning to get the issue on the agenda and push through the necessary policy change. The affiliated unions should be using their weight to demand the same.

Building social rent council housing saves money for the NHS by taking people out of health-wrecking living conditions. It saves money on the housing benefit bill because the rent is lower than the Tories “affordable rent” and the extortionate rent in the private sector. It is more affordable for the tenants. It is the best means of rescuing a new generation from the exploitative private sector.

The 80^th anniversary of the election of the Atlee government should be occasion to remind us that under far worse economic conditions than we face today – 250% debt to GDP ratio compared to 100% – it made council housing its priority, and tripled the grant to fund it. The current government should make social rent council housing its first housing priority. The funding can be found with the political will, just as it was 80 years ago.

Note:

We will be holding a Labour Party fringe meeting on Monday September 29^th at 1 p.m. At the Quaker Meeting House Liverpool | 22 School Lane | Liverpool | L1 3BT.