Broken record

Posted by: Jules Birch

17/02/2010

The Conservatives have upped the election ante on housing with an attack on Labour’s ‘truly shocking’ record. 

A new Tory critique of ‘Labour’s Two Nations’ attacks the government for its record on education, health, crime and welfare that goes with all the familiar themes of ‘Broken Britain’. And it adds: ‘If Labour’s failure to reform the welfare system is disappointing, their failure to get to grips with housing is truly shocking.’

The attack starts with Labour’s record on housebuilding (lowest since the war), homeownership (falling), waiting lists (up 80%) and new social housing (output per year was double under the Major government what it’s been under Blair and Brown). And it’s then broadened into an attack on its record in the 10 most disadvantaged areas: people twice as likely to be on waiting lists and four times more likely to be homeless.

That’s quite a case the prosecution even if much of it is vulnerable to cross-examination: the falls in housebuilding and homeownership down to financial policies that were also endorsed by the Conservatives; the increases in waiting lists and fall in new social housing down to the Tory right to buy and Labour’s decision in 1997 to stick to Tory spending plans that slashed funding for housing; and the comparison with the Conservatives not quite as bad if you compare both the Thatcher and Major governments. However, I can’t see anything to compare to the document’s embarrassing mistake on teenage pregnancies.

What’s potentially more interesting in the long term is that the document sets up several benchmarks against which to judge the performance and policies of a future Conservative government. 

There’s also an interesting section about social tenants that’s the introduction to Conservative policies like rewarding good behaviour with an equity stake, giving tenants the right to move and widening access to shared ownership. 

‘Conservatives recognise the importance of social housing and the security it provides,’ says the document. ‘We will protect and respect the rights of social tenants. Many social tenants have great pride in their homes and the neighbourhood in which they live, and deserve to be encouraged.’

Just warm words ahead of an election? Maybe. But just as the attack on Labour’s record makes will make it a bit harder to take the axe to investment, will statements like that make it that much more difficult to attack security of tenure?