MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary
of State for Housing, responding to new figures released
today showing that home-ownership has fallen to the lowest rate
in 30 years, said:
“These new government figures show yet another fall in the
home-ownership rate in England to the lowest rate in more than 30
years. There are now almost 200,000 fewer home-owning households
than in 2010 when Conservative Ministers first took charge.
“Meanwhile, the number of people stuck in an insecure and
increasingly expensive private rented sector has grown
dramatically over the last seven years. Since 2010, the number of
households renting privately as ballooned by over a
million.
“After seven years of failure on housing, not only has
home-ownership fallen, but affordable housebuilding has hit a 24
year low and rough sleeping has more than doubled. The truth is
Conservative Ministers are out of ideas and have no long-term
plan to fix the cost of housing crisis.
“ says she wants a country that
works for everyone, so she should back Labour’s plans to build
thousands more affordable homes to rent and buy, improve rights
for renters and end the scandal of rough sleeping.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
- The English Housing Survey report released today covers the
financial year 2015/16: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2015-to-2016-headline-report
- The Survey shows that there were 195,000 fewer households
owning a home in 2015/16 compared to 2009/10 and that the
proportion of people owning a home has fallen from 67.4 percent
in 2009/10 to 62.9 percent in 2015/16, a further fall on last
year. The last time the rate of home-ownership was lower was
1985.
- By comparison, the English Housing Survey shows that under
Labour between 1997 and 2010, the number of home-owning
households rose by a million.
- The Survey also shows that the number of private renting
households has increased by 1.17m since 2009/10 and 19.9% of
households now rent privately, compared to just 17.2 percent in
the social rented sector.
· ’s report showing how a Labour
government could build and pay for up to 100,000 council and
housing association homes a year is available here:http://www.smith-institute.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/high-aspirations-sound-foundations.pdf
