Labour’s manifesto pledge to build 10,000 new council homes a year by the end of the next parliament is a bit like a jigsaw with a missing piece.
It marks a break with the no fourth option orthodoxy of the last 13 years but not yet a complete one.Flash back to the run-up to the 1997 election and John Prescott was arguing for a new deal for council housing featuring a change in the public borrowing rules.
The proposal was squashed by Labour’s Treasury team because anything so bold risked damaging the party’s prudent reputation. The man in charge of that team? Gordon Brown.
Promising new council homes without changing the rules is like completing a jigsaw only to find a key piece missing from the box. Free to raise private finance, councils could make the same funding go much further. If the rules are not going to be changed, wouldn’t giving the funding to housing associations produce more homes?
An election campaign in which the level of public borrowing is such a big issue might not seem like the best time to expect movement– but the signs are that the Lib Dems will pledge to change the rules when they launch their manifesto on Wednesday.
In his interview this week with Inside Housing Brown tells housing associations: ‘We would like to see the sector use its assets and development capacities more efficiently.’Why not give local authorities the chance to do exactly the same?
Is it too much to hope that this is exactly what will happen, that Labour’s upcoming mini-manifesto on housing or the new commission on council housing will find that missing piece?
Or that, if Labour wins the election, ministers will finally slot it into place?
Have your say
You must sign in to make a comment