ao link
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In

You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles

Miliband: social housing investment could heal Brexit divisions

Long-term investment in social housing will help to fix divisions in the UK caused by the country’s exit from the European Union, former Labour leader Ed Miliband has said.

Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Sharelines

Miliband: social housing investment could heal Brexit divisions #ukhousing

Mr Miliband, who was Labour leader for five years up until 2015, said that greater investment in social housing would be a move that would help unite remain and leave voters.

Speaking in a debate on the Budget in parliament today, Mr Miliband said: “In a world and a country where we seem divided on everything, I think [social housing] unites remain voters and leave voters, young and old, people in the South and the North.

“Whatever happens with Brexit, we need to bring the country together, and I can think of nothing more likely to unite people across the divides than long-term investment in social housing, investment that needs to be at scale.

He added: “Incrementalism is not enough, we need a bolder offer, it is there from Aneurin Bevan to Harold Macmillan, and we need a government that will discover it.”


READ MORE

Autumn Budget 2018 - full coverageAutumn Budget 2018 - full coverage
European development funding will end in 2020 in event of a no-deal Brexit, government revealsEuropean development funding will end in 2020 in event of a no-deal Brexit, government reveals
The Housing Podcast: what would a no deal Brexit mean for housing?The Housing Podcast: what would a no deal Brexit mean for housing?

Earlier this week, chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget confirmed a number of housing giveaways including £653m of grant to support seven partnerships with housing providers to build 13,475 new homes.

It follows the government’s decision to remove the borrowing cap for local authorities to enable them to build more council homes.

Mr Miliband was encouraged by some of the government moves, and said the scrapping of the borrowing cap and the new housing association grant were positive steps.

However, he said that the policy’s aim of building 10,000 council homes each year and 13,000 housing association homes was not enough.

Mr Miliband said: “The question on the analysis on this Budget on housing is, is that enough? I would say that is not nearly enough.”

The former Labour leader is currently a commissioner on Shelter’s social housing commission, which has spent a year looking at the social housing sector to come up with a blueprint for the future of social housing to be published in January.

Mr Miliband said that the housing crisis would not only be solved by a change in policy, but the government and country needed to change its philosophy on housing.

This included the belief that the private sector would be able to build the number of houses needed to meet government targets.

He said: “The structural barriers around developers, around incentives to build for high end, around cost of land, we know the market will not provide sufficient housing at the scale and speed that is required and there is no historical evidence to suggest otherwise.

“The government has to recognise that there needs to be a very substantial role for government in building these homes.”

He argued that housing now needed to be seen as an important part of the nation’s infrastructure, equal to hospitals, schools and transport project such as HS2.

In an article for The Guardian in July, Mr Miliband argued for similar levels of investment that are being pumped into projects like HS2 and Crossrail to be put towards the social housing sector.

Mr Miliband said the government now viewed social housing as a residual for the neediest and that was not the origins of social housing.

He said: “We need to once again look at social housing again as something that meets aspiration and need, that is a fundamental change but was part of the original vision from everyone from Bevan to McMillan.”

Housing secretary James Brokenshire said earlier in the debate that the government was determined to fix the “broken housing market”.

He said: “There is the investment in social and affordable housing through our specific £9bn programme, which is firmly focused on that.

“That is why the chancellor’s confirmation that we are removing the biggest barrier—the government cap on how much councils can borrow to build more—is such a game changer. It will free up councils to deliver around 10,000 homes a year.”

 

Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Add New Comment
You must be logged in to comment.