This year’s Labour Party Conference saw housing and homelessness take centre stage on Monday as Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey pledged that Labour would “do whatever it takes to end this Tory housing crisis”.
Declaring that the next Labour Government will “be the most radical Government on housing for over half a century”, he announced a raft of measures, ranging from improving tenants’ rights to a tax on second homes to fund homelessness services.
The need to improve standards and offer greater security for the increasing number of people living in the private rented sector was recognised through plans to “control rents, end no-fault evictions and put a stop to the tyranny of rogue landlords”. The backing of new renters’ unions would also give tenants a vehicle through which to organise and defend their rights. In addition, the speech pledged to introduce new three-year tenancies as the standard, something the current Government looked at in its consultation on longer-tenancies.
The end of a private rented sector tenancy is the single biggest cause of homelessness in England. As such, the focus on giving tenants greater security and rights is extremely welcome. However, this must be accompanied by plans to ensure homeless people are able to access and maintain private tenancies through Help to Rent schemes.
The proposal of a national levy on second homes to fund homeless services is also a welcome recognition of the need to take concerted action to tackle the numbers of people stuck in expensive temporary accommodation and provide a route into permanent housing. Around 174,000 properties could be subject to the levy, which would raise up to £560m a year to be targeted at homeless families living in temporary accommodation.
On welfare, the party said it would consider scrapping Universal Credit and the sanctions regime in a major review of the “toxic” welfare system. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Margaret Greenwood’s speech showed a welcome recognition of the important role of welfare in providing people with a safety net when they need it and preventing homelessness. However, to do this welfare must cover the real cost of housing across Great Britain. It is therefore disappointing that Labour’s announcement failed to address changes to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and the freeze on LHA, which research by Crisis and the Chartered Institute of Housing found have made renting completely unaffordable for homeless people in many areas of Great Britain.
The last few days have seen Labour make bold statements on tackling the housing crisis and rising homelessness. However, what has been lacking is a commitment to end homelessness in the UK once and for all. Crisis’ plan to end homelessness, Everybody In, outlines the evidence-based solutions that can end homelessness and deliver cost benefits in the long-run. What we need now from all party leaders is a commitment to ending homelessness and a shared, long-term vision of how we do this. Such a commitment would ensure ending homelessness is centre stage of Labour’s agenda all year round.
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