Labour hit back at Cameron’s “record of failure” on housing

Labour’s Shadow Housing minister John Healey has this morning hit out at the Tories’ record on housing and home ownership, as David Cameron prepares to make the topic the centrepiece of his Tory conference speech today.

Cameron will pledge to build 200,000 ‘starter homes’ over the course of this parliament, encouraging people into home ownership rather than renting.

However, Cameron’s definition of ‘starter homes’ was criticised by housing charity Shelter in August, when they published research showing that an income of around £50,000 would be needed to afford one of these houses – rising to £77,000 in London. People on the Tories’ ‘living wage’ of £9 would be able to afford one of the properties in 2% of local authority areas. Families on the average wage will only be able to afford the homes in 40% of local authorities.

John Healey has slammed the “five years of failure on housing” since Cameron took office, which has seen home ownership fall to its lowest level in decades. He said:

Jeremy Corbyn has made clear that housing will be one of his priorities as Labour leader since being elected, and favours giving more powers to council to build homes.