Labour pledges a ‘housing revolution’

With the party launching its election manifesto, Labour is announcing new plans for the biggest council and social housing programme in decades.

Outlining plans to transform the lives of millions of people struggling to afford a decent home because of the housing crisis, the party says that the plans will be paid for with funding from Labour’s Social Transformation Fund, with half of the funding, approximately £75 billion over five years – set to be allocated to housing.

Labour’s plans will mean scaling up council house building so that the country is building 100,000 council homes a year by the end of the Parliament, a more than 3,500 per cent increase, as well as building at least 50,000 additional genuinely affordable homes a year through Housing Associations by the end of the Parliament. Labour is also promising at least 150,000 new council and social homes a year within five years, delivering the biggest council housebuilding programme since the years immediately after the Second World War, and the biggest overall affordable housebuilding programme since the 1960s.

Government figures show that last year the number of government-funded affordable homes for social rent built fell by 90 per cent, to fewer than 1,000, while government figures suggest fewer than 3,000 council homes were built. Furthermore, Office for National Statistics data suggests that over the last two decades, there has been a 46 per cent increase in the number of young people aged 20-34 living with their parents.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, said: “Housing should be for the many, not a speculation opportunity for dodgy landlords and the wealthy few. I am determined to create a society where working class communities and young people have access to affordable, good quality council and social homes. Everyone knows someone affected by the housing crisis. Labour is offering real change to fix it.”

John Healey, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, added: “The next Labour government will kick-start a housing revolution, with the biggest investment in new council and social homes this country has seen for decades. Labour’s transformational housing plans will mean thousands more genuinely affordable homes for people on ordinary incomes in every area of the country. Our modern council and social housing will be built to cutting-edge design and green standards providing a long-term investment in our country’s future.”