The Labour party has produced a policy paper on Britain’s housing crisis, with a twin focus on building new homes and the private rented sector.
The paper says that the building of new homes is simply not keeping up with demand, while it criticises the private rented sector on a number of points – including security of tenure, quality of accommodation, and letting agents’ fees.
The paper accuses the Government of having overseen a collapse in house building, and refusing to recognise that the private rented sector is failing to meet the needs of people living in it.
It says: “In 2015, Labour is likely to inherit a housing market still suffering the deepest crisis in a generation.”
The paper says that one particular problem is that while people generally believe there is a shortage of homes, they do not believe there is a shortage in their own areas.
It calls for local authorities to take a leading role in making the case for housing in their communities, including providing data to highlight high demand, even when it is not obvious.
On the private rented sector, the paper says that Labour would establish a national register of landlords. It praises Labour-led Newham Council in London for “leading the way” in the battle against sub-standard rented accommodation via its mandatory licensing scheme.
The paper also says that letting agents should be subject to further controls, with the options being voluntary accreditation schemes or mandatory regulation.
It also says that a Labour government would stop the “confusing and unfair system of fees that are charged to both landlords and tenants by agents”.
The paper also calls for long-term lettings to become prevalent, and says that a Labour government would incentivise landlords of tenants on benefit by offering them direct payment of rent.
The paper is calling for feedback by the end of this month (May). The document can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/bnjkzpb
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Comments
In 2015, Labour is likely to inherit a housing market still suffering the deepest crisis in a generation.
Lets hope the electorate rember exactly who created the financial crisis in the first place.
By borrowing and borowing and borrowing and additionally bribing the J Kyle demographic with cheap unsecured credit for 13 years, Messers (SIC) Blair and Brown used the Country's credit card to keep us artificially out of recession.
It isn't sensible to un-bankrupt the country, reduce the debts and then allow labour to go on anther wild spending spree to schmooze public sector workers and social tenants just because a fixed term government comes to an end.