Building the Homes We Need, Can Labour Make Housing Fair for All?
How to provide more housing, more quickly, more affordable for more people?
MPs and speakers from Crisis, the Land Planning & Development Federation, the Labour Growth Group and Young Labour all shared their views on how to achieve this. The discussion pointed out:
- Labour’s bill going through parliament to make changes to the planning laws would make planning applications for housing development faster and easier.
- Local authorities and housing associations support the changes.
- The planning system needs completely remodelling rather than tinkering at the edges for political gain – as has been the case for 50 years.
- Planning applications are supposed to be assessed against the local plan but 80% of local authorities don’t have a local plan.
- We should all lobby for the local plan to provide for social housing.
- Labour’s Renters Rights Bill will help tenants be more secure. The one month cap on advance payments will make renting more affordable – specially for students.
- Although the Government target to build 1.5Mn homes is ambitious, the actual need is somewhere between 4.5Mn and 6Mn
- The Government has allocated £39Bn to build affordable homes. This should go a long way towards replacing the 180,000 homes lost from the social sector through the Tories’ disastrous right-to-buy policy.
- Building social housing for the homeless will save money for local authorities in the long run by removing the exorbitant costs of temporary accommodation.
- The average age of death for a homeless person is 47 !
- It’s obvious but still needs stating: adequate housing improves all aspects of life.
- Angela Rayner set in train everything the housing sector asked for.
I asked the question: “Is the current definition of an affordable rent as 80% of the market rate actually affordable?”. The speakers agreed that it was not, especially in high rent parts of the country. I was surprised to learn that the rate, originally defined by George Osborne, can be varied by local authorities.
Overall, Labour is clearly beginning to solve our housing problems by taking action on several fronts but there is still some way to go.
Alan Conochie – October 2025