Labour Conference votes for 90,000 social rent homes a year, ending Right to Buy and cancelling council housing debt

But will the government change its policy? asks Martin Wicks.

At this year’s Labour Party Conference, the Labour Campaign for Council Housing’s resolution, sent in by at least ten CLPs, was kept off the agenda by a decision of the Conference Arrangements Committee. In fact, 1,126 CLP resolutions were deemed not ‘contemporary’. Only 90 CLP resolutions made it on the agenda.

It was judged not to be a ‘contemporary motion’ because, we were told, the National Policy Forum report had ‘substantially’ covered the issues in it. That was nonsense. There was only a single paragraph on housing. It was a political exclusion. The CAC used a new rule on ‘contemporary motions’ to keep off the agenda resolutions which the party machine does not want debated. This was done last year in a brazenly cynical fashion which was explained here and here.

However, we are pleased to report that much of the content of our resolution was included in one by the union UNITE (see the text below). This resolution was incorporated into a composite motion which Conference passed. Therefore, the Conference has voted for:

This stands in stark contrast to the government’s actual housing policy. Its Social and Affordable Homes Programme is a flawed programme which will not resolve the housing crisis. The SAHP

In Andy Burnham’s speech in the Manchester People’s History Museum, when he became Labour leader, he said that a government led by him would carry out “the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period.” That aspiration cannot be delivered by the SAHP as currently constituted.

What number of council homes would be required to achieve “the biggest council house programme since the post-war years”? In England there have been six years when 300,000 or more homes have been built; all in the 1960s under the two Wilson governments. The average council house component of those totals was 41%, the average number was 135,555 a year. In the UK overall, just over 1 million council homes were built during the Wilson governments from October 1964 to June 1970.

The SAHP is the child of the Keir Starmer government, largely drawn up before Andy Burnham became leader. It was fashioned by Steve Reed, until recently Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. He opposed funding a large scale council house building programme. He explained why in his response to an ITV journalist’s question: “Why doesn’t the government just do what the Attlee government did: build council housing?”

Reed said that people have different aspirations today: most want to become home owners. The government, apparently, had to respond to that aspiration. That’s why there is no funding ringfenced for council housing, and why the SAHP funds only 18,000 social rent homes a year, just 6% of its 300,000 annual target.

The UNITE resolution, which the conference voted for, as part of a composite resolution, contains the outlines of the programme the government needs to implement if it is to begin to resolve the housing crisis. It should be picked up by campaigners to build pressure on the government.

In contradiction with Andy Burnham’s expressed views, the government’s housing programme looks to the market to resolve the housing crisis. Unfortunately, that approach has been reinforced by the new version of the Tories Help to Buy scheme just announced.

Reports in the media suggest that Reed and Matthew Pennycook had been trying to get agreement for a revamped Help to Buy, but Rachel Reeves was resisting. New Chancellor John Healey, who has given it the green light, was previously Secretary of State responsible for housing, and then Shadow Secretary of State. He supported a reformed Help to Buy, and included it in the 2019 Manifesto.

 The large volume private builders were demanding Help to Buy, in order to revive a flagging market. The government has given what is effectively a subsidy for the house building oligopoly, maintaining prices at their extortionate levels, by providing a 20% loan to the buyer, in addition to their mortgage.

The £39 billion SAHP funding, over ten years, is completely insufficient. Shelter and others are right that at least 90,000 social rent homes a year are needed. In its recent report, Shelter estimated grant of £177,000 per social rent property is needed, more than £15 billion a year to fund 90,000 social rent homes.

If the Attlee government could fund the building of 800,000 council homes under far worse conditions than we face today, this government can fund 90,000 a year. It is a question of priorities. As Andy Burnham has said, council housing will save the government money on the housing benefit bill. It will also save the NHS money by taking people out of poor housing which will ruin their health. Shelter has explained the costs of government failing to build social rent housing.

Having had its resolution passed, UNITE should make council housing a campaigning priority. It can bring together other unions and housing campaigners to demand the change of course which the government needs to make. For its and other union members, who are renters, the biggest component of the ‘cost of living crisis’ is high rents. Rent controls are needed to stop the exploitation of private tenants and the policy of giving council and housing association tenants a decade of above-inflation increases should be abandoned.

Yet ultimately, only a large scale social rent council housing building and acquisitions programme – over the last six years, in England, 41% of additional council homes have been bought, rather than built, often ex-council homes lost to Right to Buy – will rescue hundreds of thousands from the private rented sector, temporary accommodation and the housing waiting lists.

Martin Wicks is Secretary of the Labour Campaign for Council Housing.

On 25th August, the Government announced £10 billion for 70,000 social and affordable homes. A welcome start, but Conference believes investment should drive reindustrialisation, support British manufacturing and create unionised jobs.

Britain’s housing crisis is a national emergency. Too many homes are poorly insulated; freezing in winter, overheating in summer. Nearly all our 29 million homes need improvement. Clearing social housing waiting lists at the current rate would take over a century, whilst housing costs drive poverty and leave young people living longer with parents. Conference believes public investment in building and retrofitting homes can tackle this crisis, strengthen domestic supply chains, support British manufacturing, create good, unionised jobs, rebuild Britain’s industrial base and deliver economic growth.