Something important is missing in Labor’s housing policy: Ratshäuser | Abi O’Connor

AMelia* is a full -time working mother of two two two who is forced to leave her home because she cannot afford the latest rent increase towards her private landlord. On paper, Amelia is one of the Happier: She has a stable job and lives in a city where rents are 35% lower than the national average. But for three months, Amelia has not found a single alternative home that she could afford.

Although it is theoretically entitled to social apartments, this closes 1.3 million households Caught in waiting lists will not repair their immediate crisis. It also doesn’t seem that Labor’s flagship promises Build 1.5 m new houses.

Last month, government A promised 350 million pounds In affordable housing funds. But what does “affordable” mean in practice? It is defined as a rent of nothing more than 80% of the market rate. In a market in which real estate prices have increased to nine times Average wages in England and Wales have become clear 80% of such an amount completely unaffordable For most people.

Of the 2,800 new affordable houses, which are to be built with the additional financing, half of half of half will be social rent (houses that are either residential property associations or local authorities are available 50% of the market price and intended for people with low income); The money will too finance another 250 councilors. These promises come to the back of the ministers who consistently recognize this indispensable lack of social homes. This raises the question: Why are Labor’s interventions not appropriate to the extent of the problem with which we are confronted and the opportunity to remedy them?

Serivating governments have tightened the crisis rather than solved, whereby politics consolidated the apartment as a goods rather than quite as a goods. The real estate crisis of people like Amelia is a direct result of the sale of social housing. This was partly caused by the To end failure or transmitted The right to purchase that has seen more than Lost 100,000 social houses Four out of ten of them have been rented on the private market since 2015.

This loss of social homes also contributes directly to astronomical increase in temporary accommodation costs – an amazing 89% in the last decade. In 2023-2024 councils in England alone 2.3 billion GBP output for temporary accommodations. In some regions such as Yorkshire and Humber, the councils pay About three times The price of private rent in temporary accommodations.

Hard hit councilors try entrepreneurial corrections against walls of housing and are looking for houses far outside of their areas. The London district of Enfield began last week Looking for houses in Liverpool. At the same time, the councils will be from 2021 to 2026 I paid £ 70 billion £ in the subsidy for landlords through local apartment allowances.

The actual solution is to provide accommodation accommodation that protects the right of the individual for protection and brings income to finance public services. The declared goal of Labor is to prioritize growth, but its inaction means that public and private money is impressed in the housing costs. If the households were not forced to spend almost half of their income for apartments, they would have available income to spend locally. Shelter recently showed that investments could bring in 90,000 social houses £ 51 billion in the economy over 30 years.

So far, the government’s interventions seem primarily to serve the interests of the developer land lords. These eternal winners continue to use the financial rewards for the construction of new houses while getting out Section 106 Affordable housing obligations, too often for reasons of profit margins. As Research From the University of Sheffield shows in Manchester between 2012 and 2020, only 151 affordable houses were built – a quite burglary of the mandatory 20% affordable apartment destination of 4,583 houses. This is that Model followed in practice.

The new planning and infrastructure calculation is intended to strengthen this system by concentrating on “cutting” bureaucracy to build faster and larger. Bulldozing The planning system is celebrated by the developers and the building sector, a tellty sign of who Should win From these changes. It’s no coincidence about it largest individual type of businessThe increase in more than four times from 2016. The model guided by developer will never prioritize social and really affordable apartments.

With the current Labor plans, tenants will not see that their lives are improving. Instead, they need the government to postpone their focus and use the opportunity to use the social housing – for the life and economy of people – supplemented by mechanisms to deal with unrestricted rent increases. If this government does not proceed in social housing, anyone who rents privately in this country could soon be exposed to the same crisis as Amelia.

* This name has been changed