Labour will get Britain building to get the next generation on to the property ladder

Emma Reynolds, Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, will today set out Labour’s plans to boost Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) builders, which the party says will tackle the housing crisis and help the next generation on to the property ladder. Speaking in Parliament at the Federation of Master Builders Pre-Election Debate, she will accuse the Tory-led Government of letting families down by failing to build the homes our country needs.

Emma Reynolds will reveal new figures which she claims show:

• A daily housing gap of 356 homes: 
• since 2010, 356 fewer homes have been built every day compared with what families need.
• As a result, levels of overcrowding have reached the highest level for nearly two decades in this Parliament with 652,000 households currently overcrowded.

At the event, designed to highlight the role of small builders and the construction sector, she will also highlight figures which Labour say show: The proportion of homes built by SME builders has fallen from 34 per cent to 27 per cent since 2010, with a loss of an estimated 1,131 SME builders. Emma Reynolds will unveil a package of measures which Labour say will boost housebuilding, including SME builders and help the next generation on to the property ladder. The Labour proposals include:

• A Help to Build scheme which will allow SMEs to access lower-cost bank lending supported by Treasury guarantees.
• A requirement for Local Authorities to include a higher proportion of small sites in their five-year land supply.
• The introduction of fast-track planning on small sites of less than ten homes.

Emma Reynolds is expected to say: "We are not even building half the number of homes that we need to keep up with demand. A record number of young people in their twenties and thirties are living at home with their parents. Many young people and families are priced out of home ownership and some of these families are living in overcrowded conditions. Every day we are building 356 fewer homes than we need because the Tories have presided over the lowest levels of housebuilding in peacetime since the 1920s.

Ms Reynolds is also expected to say: "We need a more diverse and competitive housing market to build the homes we need but in recent years small builders have fallen into decline. Labour will boost small builders, increase house building and help make home ownership a realistic aspiration for the next generation. Labour is committed to building many more homes which is why we will get 200,000 homes built a year by 2020, creating up to 230,000 jobs.”

Tory 'broken housing ladder' revealed

Just days after the launch of the Lyons Housing Report, Emma Reynolds, Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, will today outline further details of Labour’s plan to tackle the housing crisis and help the next generation get a home of their own. Emma Reynolds will accuse the Tories of failing to stand up for the many people struggling to get an affordable home to rent and to buy. She will accuse the Tory-led Government of making the housing crisis worse and unveil new figures which show:

• A collapse of nearly 50 per cent in the number of affordable home ownership properties built over the past year, compared with the last year of the last Labour Government.
• The affordable homes for rent built for those in need last year was just 2 per cent of those needed – it would take at least 55 years to clear waiting lists at current rates.

Emma Reynolds will announce new plans to make tackling the housing crisis a national priority under the next Labour Government and more help for small and medium-sized builders to get Britain building. The next Labour Government will:

• Establish a new cross-government task force, to include all the major Whitehall departments, to drive a co-ordinated approach to increasing housing supply and tackling the housing crisis.
• Introduce fast-track planning on small sites of less than ten homes.

On the Conservative-led Government’s record on house building and home ownership, Emma Reynolds will say: "While the Tories say the housing market is back on track, the truth is they’ve presided over the lowest level of house building in peacetime since the 1920s.  Now we learn that the number of affordable homes for aspiring first-time buyers has collapsed by a half and at current rates it would take more than half a century to build the homes for those most in need. If you’re one of the many struggling to get a home of your own, the Tories are failing you. But if you’re one of the privileged few with a home worth over 2 million pounds, the Tories are on your side."

On Labour's plan to tackle the housing crisis, Emma Reynolds will say: "Labour has set out the first serious plan in a generation for building homes at the scale and speed our nation needs. Our plan will see 200,000 homes built a year by 2020 so that everyone can have a decent home at a price they can afford. To achieve our ambition, the next Labour Government will make housing a national priority by establishing a cross-government task force to tackle the housing crisis. But we must do more and that is why we’ll introduce fast-track planning rules for small sites of less than 10 so that builders can get on and build the homes the next generation needs. Labour is committed to building more affordable homes to rent and buy which is why, as Ed Balls has said, the next Labour government will make housing a bigger priority within the existing capital settlement for the next Parliament."

300,000 new homes every year under Lib Dem plans

The Liberal Democrats have reaffirmed their commitment to ambitious plans to accelerate housebuilding to 300,000 new homes every year at the party’s conference in Glasgow.  

The conference motion, proposed by the Party President Tim Farron, includes plans for the creation of a Housing Investment Bank to boost homebuilding and  deliver homes to help low-income working families who are earning too much to get a place in social housing but unable to afford a home on the open market.  

Other reforms would see planning authorities gain the right to designate New Home Zones to make building quality affordable homes possible and the roll out of a large-scale apprenticeships programme to deliver the skills needed to make these projects happen. Nick Clegg has previously called for the building of as many as ten new garden cities to help tackle the country’s growing housing shortage and the policy motion passed by the Liberal Democrat conference today backs this plan.  

Liberal Democrat Party President Tim Farron, said: “These plans are ambitious but achievable. Most experts say we need to build up to 300,000 homes per year to tackle the problem of under supply and stop housing costs from spiralling out of the reach of ordinary families.  

"We need good quality homes in well planned communities. We need a long term strategy to build ourselves out of a housing crisis without building ourselves into  a social crisis. That is exactly what we are going to do and why we are committed to the 300,000 target. It is integral to building a stronger economy and a fairer society where there is opportunity for everyone.  

“Today we have set out the policies that will help deliver that target- for example enabling planning authorities to designate New Home Zones to build good quality, affordable homes in communities with the infrastructure and green spaces which people value.   “Successive Tory and Labour governments failed to grapple with homebuilding over the last decades. Neither can be trusted to deliver the reforms we need to ensure that enough new homes are built.”​

38% increase in private sector evictions

Growing numbers of private sector tenants are turning to Citizens Advice after facing eviction despite being up to date with their rent, the national charity has revealed. The charity has seen a 38 per cent increase in issues caused by people without rent arrears being threatened with eviction from a private sector rented home. People came to bureaux for help with more than 5,000 issues caused by the problem in 2013/14, up from 3,750 the year before.

People who struggle to find the money can face serious problems. Eviction by private landlords is the most common cause of homelessness for CAB clients, causing one in 10 of the 80,000 problems with homelessness which Citizens Advice Bureaux saw in the last year. Problems in London and the South East are particularly acute, as twice as many people came to Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) with the problem in the first three months of 2014. Bureaux in the regions dealt with 900 problems caused by people being evicted without having run up arrears in January to March 2014, compared to 400 issues during the same period in 2013.

People report that they are being evicted because:

• The landlord wants to sell their home
• Rents are hiked to unaffordable levels
• They have asked their landlord to carry out repairs.

Some people are being given notice when they inform their landlord that their circumstances have changed and they have moved on to housing benefit, even if they have not fallen behind with their rent. The increasing trend of evictions coincides with rises in house prices. During January to March 2014 house prices rose by 18 per cent in the capital and 10 per cent in the South East, compared with January to March 2013. This was mirrored by a rise in the number of people who sought help from Citizens Advice when they were threatened with eviction despite being up to date with rent, which more than doubled, in the first three months of 2014, compared to the first three of 2013.

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: "Tenants are being treated as cash cows as a chronic housing shortage pushes up prices and forces renters out of their homes. Competition for properties means that tenants are easy to replace, increasing insecurity for people trying to create a home in the private rented sector. We see people who will be forced to move away from work, school or family and friends, which can ramp up commuting and childcare costs or disrupt children's education. We desperately need more new homes to tackle Britain's woefully inadequate housing supply. Until this happens, we'll continue seeing evictions rocket as tenants are left at the mercy of rising rents and insecure tenancies."

If they are evicted, tenants have no choice but to find hundreds of pounds for a deposit and advance rent plus an average of £350 in letting fees, sometimes just a few months after paying out for the original property. As well as problems caused by rising prices, tenants are coming to Citizens Advice because landlords are unfairly keeping hold of deposits, refusing to carry out repairs or are harassing their tenants. Over the past year, June 2013 to May 2014, 150,000 people sought advice on renting from a private landlord on the charity's website, a 13 per cent increase on the year before.

In the North East, where house prices rose six per cent in 2013/14, CAB saw 52 problems with evictions without arrears in the first three months of the year, up from 40 in January to March 2013. In Yorkshire and the Humber, which also saw price increases of six per cent, CAB saw 72 problems in the first three months of 2014, up from 28 the year before.

Labour proposes a register for private landlords

New figures released today show that around half a million families and one hundred thousand pensioners live in homes with poor conditions in the private rented sector. The Labour party have published a document which they say sets out proposals to drive standards up and bad landlords out.

The document from Labour explores a range of measures at the national and local level to ensure there is a private rented sector that works for all, including ideas for a national register of private landlords, a new national private rented property standard. It also proposes that there should be greater powers for local authorities and tougher sanctions for bad landlords, including the potential to strike off criminal landlords. 

With thousands of families with children and pensioners living in homes with potentially serious hazards, damp and mould and having to rely on portable heaters, the Labour party say their policy review is focused on making the private rented sector work for all.

Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, Jack Dromey said: "The private rented sector has an important role in meeting housing need. But too many tenants are in poor and sometimes dangerous homes. That’s why Labour has set out proposals to drive standards up and bad landlords out. Bad housing harms health and dangerous housing can kill. We want to see all families enjoying a decent home, at a price they can afford. While the majority of landlords are responsible, there can be no place in future for homes that are damp, cold and unfit to bring children up, holding them back at school. That’s why we’re setting out our proposals so the sector works for all."