MP, Labour's Shadow Housing
Secretary, responding to the release of the final report of
Shelter’s commission on social housing, said:
“This important report should be a wake-up call for Conservative
Ministers.
“It confirms that investment in new social homes has fallen
dramatically since 2010 and that the Conservative re-definition
of ‘affordable housing’ is a sham.
“Housing will be at the heart of the next Labour government’s
plans to rebuild Britain, with a million new genuinely low-cost
homes in the first ten years alone.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
- · The report of
Shelter’s housing commission, ‘Building for our future: a vision
for social housing’ is published today (Tuesday 8 January 2019).
- · Page 97 of the
report confirms the dramatic decline in Government funding for
social housing since 2010, from over £4bn annually in 2009/10 to
central Government grant funding of only around £0.5bn last year.
- · Page 96 of the
report confirms that on the Government’s definition, ‘affordable
homes’ “…are not affordable. ‘Affordable rents’ for typical
two-bed properties work out at 30% more expensive than social
rents, amounting to £1,400 more per year on average… these rent
levels are completely out of reach for most people who are
eligible for social housing.”
- · Figures from
Shelter published last summer also revealed that there are now
over one million people on social housing waiting
lists. BBC, 9 June 2018, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-44413766
- · The Shelter report
sets out a social housing building target over twenty years.
Labour’s published plans for building over a shorter ten year
timeframe are consistent with this scale of
ambition: http://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Housing-for-the-Many-final.pdf.
