A decent home for us all –

Labour’s pledges on housing

Everyone needs a decent, safe home. But right now that’s just a dream for many. Spiralling house prices are denying more and more young people a home of their own. Private renters are sometimes forking out over half of their wages on a home that’s too often of poor quality. And the scandal of sleeping on the streets is still with us.

Labour locally would tackle the broken housing market by:

• building council housing, borrowing against the secure assets these homes would be for decades to come;
• using the Council’s powers to ensure that housing developers pay in return for planning permissions and that the money raised is spent locally on essentials like schools and play areas that make communities better;
• cracking down on rogue landlords and introducing ‘landlord licensing’ to ensure the quality of privately rented homes;
• investing in schemes to put a roof over everyone’s head such as supported housing and, as long as there are people who are homeless, a permanent night shelter.