Miliband’s million homes is a really big deal – and good politics too

The briefing last night was all about Labour’s plan to deliver a tax cut for small businesses – but the real story was on the front page of the Guardian this morning. Ed Miliband will pledge today (in a speech given without notes) that one million new homes will built in the next parliament under a Labour government.

That’s a huge deal – and will presumably be the top line of Miliband’s speech today. But as well as being good politics (house building is popular) it’s also great for the economy and society (job creating, growth stimulating) as well as creating an asset for the British people.

I’ve been banging on for years about the need for a massive house building programme. Housing is the silver bullet. Quality housing reduces your chances of being ill, it increases your chances of getting a job and it helps kids perform better at school. I said back in June that the party should be talking about millions of new homes, not hundreds of thousands – so I’m delighted that’s what Miliband is doing today. I also wrote in The Times back in July that house building could – and should – be funded by more borrowing, such is the growth multiplier and the economic benefits.

When I’ve lambasted Ed over the past year for the party’s lack of policies, and been asked – inevitably – what I’d like to see the party pledge to do, one million new homes in the next parliament has always been near the top of my list. It’s difficult to stress how important – and necessary – I think this is.

That said, there’s a few elephants in the room (isn’t there always?).

So far I’ve seen nothing to suggest that any of these million new homes that are going to be built will be funded by government spending, which they surely must be if Miliband is going to make good on his commitment. Secondly, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating – and the baking process for the pudding is yet another Labour Party review. Spare me. Thirdly, there’s talk about new towns, but where are they going to be? And we’ll need more than new towns to build a million homes. Finally – and most importantly – the greatest need in Britain at the moment is for affordable housing. Yet I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Miliband is committing to affordable homes, which is what is really needed to tackle our housing crisis. A million mansions won’t isn’t what Britain needs – even if there is a mansion tax too…

But the row over how many of these homes will be affordable – and there will be a row, because many, myself included, will want all of these homes to be affordable – can wait for another day. Building a million homes and tackling Britain’s housing crisis shows that Ed Miliband is getting serious about making some of the big and bold moves that he must make to win the next election.

Now all he needs to do is make the speech – where we’ll see if there are any further “policy goodies” – but I, for one, have a spring in my step this morning.