London needs plans to tackle the housing crisis – only Labour is up to the task

This Sunday I’ll be joining a team of Labour activists in a London 3 Seat Challenge. We’re heading to Harrow East to help Uma Kumaran, Hendon for Andrew Dismore, and then Finchley and Golders Green for Sarah Sackman. (It will be cold, but it will be fun: You can join me by signing up here: here)

We did our first London 3 Seat Challenge in Enfield, Hornsey and Wood Green, and Hampstead and Kilburn a couple of weeks ago – and between us we added 1,000 contacts. And as anyone who goes campaigning in London will tell you, as well as concerns about the NHS and the cost of living crisis, one issue dominates in the capital: housing.

Today’s papers show the difference between the two parties. The front page of the Guardian carries a story that new Tory plans to allow developers to avoid affordable housing payments are so extreme that even developers think they have gone too far.

In an extraordinary letter, The Westminster Property Association, which includes several Tory donors wrote, “[government policy] removes an important element of developer contribution to the provision of affordable housing. The unintended consequences of such policies will actually lead to a further erosion of the ability of people from a wide range of backgrounds to live in the heart of the capital.”

So developers want the government to be stricter on them to ensure that they build enough affordable housing. How could they have got it so badly wrong? This is a change that no-one wanted, even the developers who stand to gain most.

This government is carelessly giving away hundreds of millions of pounds worth of affordable homes urgently needed by Londoners, rather than standing firm on the side of families desperate for affordable housing. That is a very clear statement of the priority of this Tory-led government.

They have done this by creating a loophole that makes it easier for developers to ignore their responsibility to build affordable homes, and more than that they are creating an incentive to evict tenants. By extending this loophole beyond just refurbishing empty buildings, they have gone much further than anyone expected – and have clearly not considered the very negative consequences.

In consideration of families on housing waiting lists, this policy must be immediately suspended in London until ministers can produce a comprehensive impact assessment that clearly demonstrates it won’t further damage London’s supply of affordable housing.

Elsewhere, Ed Miliband and Emma Reynolds have been promoting Labour’s progressive plans to finally even up the playing field for the nine million renters in the UK.

Three big clear steps to redress the balance: banning rip-off fees for tenants, bringing in new fairer three year tenancies, and ending excessive price hikes by putting a ceiling on rents within those years.

London’s housing crisis is clear for all to see. We’re not building enough homes, there are nowhere near enough affordable properties and rents are now so expensive that a growing number of Londoners are being forced to share with a stranger. And London’s empty homes scandal means 22,000 properties have been lying empty for more than 6 months, whilst hundreds of thousands are stuck in temporary accommodation or on social housing waiting lists.

London is crying out for some ambitious and achievable plans to tackle our housing crisis. The Tories offer policies so badly thought through that even developers think they unfairly detract from the need to build affordable homes. What this city needs is a plan to build tens of thousands more homes, proposals to tackle the scandal of our empty homes, and real help for renters.

From Downing Street to City Hall, only Labour is up to the task.