Miliband: We will review Right to Buy one-for-one repacements

Mr Milband said the party is committed to social rent and promised to develop a long-term strategy to tackle homelessness.

Why should social housing professionals vote Labour?

Labour will always support social housing professionals in the exceptional work they do and I think that many of the values that attracted your readers into the housing profession are shared by the Labour Party.

Social housing professionals play a hugely important role in providing housing for those who need it, including building badly needed affordable homes. They help people get back to work and help the most vulnerable including those who are homeless or sleeping rough. Those are goals the Labour party shares. 

I have made tackling the housing crisis a personal priority and a priority for the next Labour Government.

What have you been doing in the last few months to champion the role of housing?

Just this week I set out Labour’s sixth pledge on housing, committing the next Labour Government to the biggest house building programme for a generation, giving priority to first-time buyers, building more affordable homes and introducing reform of the private rented sector.

House building starts are still around 73% of pre-recession levels, despite what ministers say about the economy improving. How are you going to improve this rate of building?

The housing shortage didn’t begin under this Government, but there is no question that under David Cameron it has got much worse. The number of homes built over the last five years is the lowest in peacetime since the 1920s – and another five years of Tory rule will make it worse still.

Labour has set out a comprehensive plan to get the homes built that our country needs. We will implement the Lyons Review and get at least 200,000 homes built a year by 2020.

This is backed by a new manifesto commitment to use the Help to Buy ISA to create a £5 billion Future Homes Fund to build homes for first time buyers over the course of the next parliament. We will give local authorities new ‘use it or lose it’ powers to tackle developers sitting on land, and pursue a ‘brownfield first’ approach.

We will drive greater competition in housebuilding by backing small builders through our new Help to Build scheme. Crucially, we will invest in affordable homes again by prioritising capital investment.

Has Labour yet worked out how it can keep Right to Buy but ensure one-for-one replacement of homes sold? If so, how will it do it?

 This Government promised to replace homes sold through Right to Buy one-for-one but has failed to get anywhere near this. We want to ensure that homes sold through Right to Buy are replaced, which is why we will review how this can be done in Government.

Would Labour’s plans for the private rented sector (national register of landlords, three-year tenancies) lead to a lack of investment in the PRS? If not, what evidence on this has the party looked at?

 No. Our plans will achieve a much more professional private rented sector which will create the conditions for further investment. After all, what landlords want are good tenants who pay the rent each month and take care of the property. While there are many tenants who do this, the current short-term system doesn’t encourage a long-term approach.

Many other countries, including some of our European counterparts, have much higher levels of institutional investment but still have much greater protection in place for tenants than we have here.

What do you intend to do to encourage closer working between social landlords and the department of health. Inside Housing is campaigning for the government to recognise the key cost savings social landlords can deliver for the government, across policy areas including health and worklessness. Will you lend your backing?

We know how important the link between health and housing is, which is why we have set out plans for the National Health Service that join up services from home to hospital with a single point of contact. This would bring together physical health, mental health and social care, and focus on early intervention and prevention .

Will you commit to the current levels of grant funding for affordable housing? The 2015-20 affordable homes programme provides £4.8bn over five years from 2015. Would you encourage housing associations to take part in the affordable housing programme, or do you think they should leave this pot of money if their finances are healthy enough through private sale and market rent schemes?

Should the affordable homes programme only go to social landlords that really need this cash for development? How committed is Labour to social rent? Would a Labour government return to social rent, or will it continue to fund the coalition government’s ‘affordable rent’ tenure at up to 80% market rents?

 This Government has undermined affordable housing delivery at every step, from cutting the affordable homes budget by 60 per cent to consistently watering down requirements on developers. Labour is committed to building more affordable homes in the next Parliament, including homes for social rent, and that’s why capital investment for housing will be a top priority. But while investment is important, of course we support innovative housing associations that find other means of funding.

How will you reform shared ownership so that it becomes a more attractive option for potential home buyers – especially in London? Inside Housing research recently found that deposits have hit up to £150,000 in Westminster.

I want to support as many people as possible to achieve their dream of home ownership. Shared ownership can play an important part in that which is why successive Labour Governments have supported it. Of course we should continue to look at how to make it as affordable as possible.

How are you intending to help social landlords that are expecting to face significant rent losses when universal credit is rolled out? If landlords see a significant drop in income, will you consider systematically paying social landlords the housing cost of their universal credit payment directly? If Labour does scrap universal credit- what is it likely to replace it with?

We’ve committed to scrapping the Bedroom Tax and to undertake a full review of Universal Credit. As part of that review we will of course look at how direct payment will work.

Should increasingly stretched local authorities be placing homeless families outside their local area?

Labour has a proud record of tackling homelessness and during our last period in office there was a 70 per cent reduction in homelessness. But since 2010 much of that progress has been reversed. After years of declining trends, all forms of homelessness are once again on the rise, including sleeping rough which has risen by 55 per cent.

Labour is as committed today to tackling this problem as it has always been and will develop and implement a long-term strategy on it. We will of course look at local authorities’ role as part of that.

Will you review the benefit cap, given that the Supreme Court found that it breached the government’s obligations under the UN convention on the rights of the child?

Labour will ensure that the social security system is fair – rewarding contribution and being available for those who need it – and affordable. We will keep the Household Benefit Cap, and ask the Independent Social Security Advisory Committee to examine whether it should be lower in some areas to reflect lower housing costs. Meanwhile we will get a grip on the chaos and waste at the Department for Work and Pensions which has led to millions of pounds squandered on the failed roll-out of Universal Credit.

Labour will tackle the cost of temporary accommodation which is leaving families in poor quality accommodation with the taxpayer picking up a rising bill. Local Authorities such as Newham have taken innovative steps to provide families with more stable homes and bring down costs. Labour will review the costs of temporary accommodation to deliver a better deal for families and the taxpayer.

 Will you commit raise the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap for councils to help them develop?

We will allow individual local authorities to use greater flexibility in their Housing Revenue Accounts to increase investment in building more social homes where they can present a valid business case. The Treasury would be able to ensure that the additional flexibility does not see an increase in total borrowing above currently planned levels.

Will you extend the Freedom of Information Act to housing associations?

There are no current plans to extend the FOI act to housing associations but the next Labour Government will keep this under review.