Miliband to outline Labour’s home-building plan tomorrow

Tomorrow, Ed Miliband will outline Labour’s plan for house building and creating a fairer renting market.

At a People’s Question Time in Hove, the Labour leader will explain how the current government has failed the millions of people who want to own a home but are unable to because of the ongoing housing crisis.

Labour’s plan for housing includes ensuring that 200,000 more homes are built every year by 2020, giving local communities more robust powers to build the homes and putting a cap on rent increases for new 3 year tenancies.

Miliband will lambast the Government, saying they have “betrayed young people” but that nowhere has this failure been “more dismal than on housing”. He’ll explain:

“We are building less than half the number of homes we need and young people are being priced out of the market with the average house price now eight times the average wage.

“This Government has achieved nothing but record lows for house building and home ownership – and record highs for working people still living with their parents and young families having to pay rip off charges to rent.”

Highlighting that the Conservatives don’t have a costed housing plan, Miliband will go on to explain how Labour’s plan differs drastically from the Tories’, saying:

“The cost of a deposit for a first home is rising year on year and soaring rents are squeezing young people’s ability to save. We have a plan to help young people get on the housing ladder.

“We have a plan to build hundreds of thousands of new homes and give priority for those homes to young families just starting out.

“And we have a plan for families who rent with new long-term tenancies to prevent rip-off rent rises. We will include legislation in our first Queen’s Speech to ban letting agent fees charged to tenants, saving Generation Rent more than £1.5 billion over the parliament – or £625 for each family.

“This is a better plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis with more homes, fairer rents and help for first-time buyers.

“This is a plan which will help fulfil the fundamental aspiration people have in life for a decent home of their own.

“This is a plan which will help restore the Promise of Britain so the next generation can do better than the last based on Labour’s belief that our country succeeds when working families succeed.”