Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer has confirmed that Awaab’s Law - putting a strict timescale on urgent repairs being done - will be extended into the private rental sector.
In a speech to the Chartered Institute of Housing, Starmer said there was an urgent need for good quality housing of all tenures to become “the base camp for people to achieve their own aspiration, not the barrier that prevents people from reaching the summit”.
At the institute’s presidential dinner he said: “Look around the country. 140,000 children, that’s a record number, homeless in temporary accommodation. 1.6 million children living in freezing houses with mould on the wall or water leaking from the ceiling. Families cramped into unsuitable temporary accommodation.
“And there is a price to pay for every child who can’t fulfil their potential because they have no home to sleep in tonight. There is a cost to the country for every young person who won’t be able to live the life they deserve because they don’t have the housing that they need.”
In addition to pledging to extend Awaab;s Law Starmer again promised to build 1.5m homes - an average of 300,000 a year - over the course of a full Labour term with some of those homes in new towns, with first time buyers given ‘first dibs’ on new builds in their areas, plus the creation of a government-backed mortgage guarantee scheme.
He told the institute: “We want to get Britain building because we know that the homes of today are the homes of tomorrow. We can’t build a future for our country unless we build the homes that make it possible for people to think about the future.”
And he insists that he wanted to see “a country where every person has a safe, secure place that they can call a home, not just grinding, day in and day out, to make the rent every month, never able to plan ahead, no way to save for a deposit”.
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When will politicians ever learn that the carrot is far more powerful than the stick? If they want to encourage more housing, they should be encouraging, landlords, not burying them under more legislation.
When will politicians accept that the decline of social housing is the starting point of the housing crisis. Now which party was it that started that process, hmmmm.
Building more homes for low income families is how to reverse the damage. £12bill a year for 10 years is needed which these days is achievable.
You can’t then sell them and they don’t create a market, oh yes that’s why neither right wing party has done it!
There can never be enough homes built due to high immigration. Our small island is now overloaded with too many people. Regarding the private rental sector landlords are selling up there is a shortage of properties to rent due to the ending of Section 21 Notice their only safeguard against difficult tenants.
Another reason to sell up. Keep going Sir Kneel. There are still some landlords not convinced that you will be as bad as the faux-Tories.
The charmer seems to be saying quality housing is not the norm, maybe not in the social sector but I'd say the PRS has had a pretty good average for sometime now. That the social sector consistently fails, I'd be looking to apply the current and immanent PRS legislation to the social sector instead of assuming they're all well meaning people doing a great job. Bu
t beating the PRS makes better press.
And one reason that the standard in the PRS tends to be higher and better is because it is a realisable asset for the Landlord. There is no benefit to the Landlord in allowing it to fall into disrepair or not making improvements as this increases the value, to a point, obviously, £15k of solar panels is unlikely to return £15k when sold.
I firmly believe that the Gov't needs to get their own house in order with SH, put the legislation to them for 2 years, then roll it out to the PRS. Gives us more chance to get ready for it and gives them time to work out the kinks of oversight, reporting and punishment before it rolls out to us. And as SH tends to house the more vulnerable in society, it tackles the issues he raised above...
I think that most, if not all, children that has died or lives in "freezing houses with mould on the wall or water leaking from the ceiling" has been in social housing. Another example of Sir Kneel chasing votes. On his record, we should not worry because he will change his mind next week.
His fastest U-turn is is supporting the anti-Semitic Labour candidate in Rochdale then, just 24 hours later. withdrawing his support so Labour do not have an official candidate in the by-election. You really could not make it up.
I think Awaabs Law should be rolled out to the PRS as well, once the Gov't has it's own house in order with regards to SH. But then what about the people who own their home who cannot afford repairs, but also cannot sell due to negative equity or lack of suitable housing? Who gets fined and charged for those children living in substandard housing?
EVERYONE should have a safe, warm and healthy home to live in, the same as no-one should be discriminated based on skin colour or religion, assaulted because of their gender or orientation, but Utopia does not exist. The best we can do, is try our best to get close to it.
If Starmer pledges to build 1.5M homes then why did his party promote and still promote the sale of over 2M rtb government-owned homes? Could it be the £47Bn proceeds that fed successive government idelogies?
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