Housing: The Dog that didn’t bark is starting to bite

Most people are well housed and can afford their homes.  That’s probably why housing often threatens to rise to the top of the political agenda but never quite does – in elections it is the dog that doesn’t bark.  The Welfare Reform Bill achieved some prominence in the media but last year the Tory Government got away with a 60% cut in the housing investment programme with little attention.  And Tory London Mayor Johnson gets away with talking total tripe about housing most of the time.

But polls and studies show that the public is getting more concerned about the lack of affordable homes.  Even comfortable home owners wonder where their children might live and face having them live at home into their 30s.  Many young working people, who might have expected to buy in the foreseeable future, are now trapped as ‘generation rent’ until their 30s or even 40s, with high private rents making it ever harder to save for a deposit.  For those on low incomes or homeless or in desperate housing need, the Tories are snatching away their hope of a social rented home – almost none are being built and many existing homes are re-let at much higher rents.  Their cruellest joke was to launch a new programme called ‘affordable rent’, which isn’t – rents are up to 80% of market rents, going on twice as high as traditional social rent, and tenancies are insecure.

That’s not to mention the abandonment of Labour’s policy of creating mixed communities.  Large sections of our cities – and not just central London as they would have us believe – are becoming no go areas for the poor and new development is much less likely to be mixed tenure.

When Labour Housing Group was formed 30 years ago, we had an ideologically-driven Tory Government that was pushing free market solutions.  But even they didn’t contemplate ending social rented housing altogether and cutting housing support viciously so that ordinary people have to pay a higher and higher share of their income to cover their housing costs.

Working closely with Shadow Housing Minister Jack Dromey, LHG is working on policies that will make a difference at the 2015 General Election.  Our emphasis is not just on housing but the context that housing operates in.  Housing investment is good for the economy and has a high multiplier effect through the supply chain.  Public spending on housing pays for itself through employment generation, boosting tax income and reducing benefit spend.  Better housing has hugely beneficial impacts on health and well-being as people are taken out of squalid and overcrowded conditions.  It improves educational attainment.  It improves dignity in old age and can be life-changing for disabled people.

Our immediate focus is the London Mayoral Elections where housing will play a prominent role.  London LHG has been working hard to demonstrate Ken Livingstone’s excellent housing record as Mayor and to develop radical policies for his next term.  We are also exposing Johnson’s inept and uncaring policies.  His claim to have built affordable homes is largely based on homes being completed that were started by Ken and by the Labour Government.  Johnson has no interest in tackling high rents and rogue landlords because he believes in the free market.  Despite saying that benefit cuts would amount to ‘Kosovo-style cleansing’ he has done nothing practical to mitigate their effects.  Homelessness is growing again after many years of reduction under Labour.

Ken winning with radical housing policies will make a huge difference for Londoners and will set the scene for Ed Miliband to take Labour into the next Election with an effective and forward-looking housing policy closely linked to the economic, health and welfare agendas.

Next time it will be higher up the political agenda and, with the right policies, it will contribute to a Labour victory.

You can follow LHG through Red Brick blog, our website, and find us on Twitter @labourhousing.