John Healey responds to new research showing a fall in investment in social housing

John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, responding to research by the Chartered Institute of Housing showing a fall in investment in social housing, said:

“After eight years of failure the Conservatives have no plan to fix the housing crisis and build the low-cost homes the country needs.

“You can’t make housing more affordable without building more affordable homes, and the number of new social rented homes being started has fallen from 40,000 with Labour to fewer than 1,000 last year.

“A Labour Government will build 100,000 genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy each year, including the biggest council housebuilding programme in more than thirty years.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• ·         New Chartered Institute of Housing research released ahead of the launch of their annual ‘UK Housing Review’ tomorrow finds that in 2015/16, just 4.3 per cent of Government  housing subsidy went towards measures to boost new building, down from 82 per cent in 1975/76. The Institute are calling for more investment in ‘bricks and mortar’ to make housing more affordable.

• ·         The number of new social rented homes being started has fallen by 98% since 2010: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/662763/Live_Table_1012.xlsx  

• ·         Labour’s plan to fix the housing crisis is available here: https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Housing-Mini-Manifesto.pdf