Morning Briefing: Labour pushes hard on housing

In the news

The Guardian reports the results of an analysis by the Labour Party of figures from the English Housing Survey showing that hundreds of thousands of young adults live in homes in such bad condition they could cause harm.

The news comes just over a week after Labour MP Karen Buck’s Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn talked extensively of his party’s plans to tackle the housing crisis on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, saying Labour would buy 8,000 homes for rough sleepers. National newspapers have reported this as a deal with housing associations - which makes it sound like an extension of a similar pledge for 4,000 homes launched this time last year.

He also said he would “give local authorities the power to take over properties that had been deliberately left empty”.

In Belfast, residents have called for a meeting with housing chiefs over a safety report on a tower block in the north of the city, The Irish News reports.

And in Edinburgh, according to Scottish Housing News, the council has agreed to stop using bed and breakfast accommodation for homeless families by June 2018.

Meanwhile, The Guardian also has a story based on figures from property data experts Molior London showing that more than half of the 1,900 ultra-luxury flats built in London last year failed to sell.

In the same paper, leading economist Ann Pettifor, who predicted the 2008 global financial crisis, argues that building more homes will not solve Britain’s housing crisis.

On social media

Our new Labour analysis leads Guardian to expose scale - over 1/3 million - of homes of u35s unfit for habitation t.co/pV4fPyWZKY pic.twitter.com/T5WE4T3c4p

— John Healey MP (@JohnHealey_MP)

Our new Labour analysis leads Guardian to expose scale - over 1/3 million - of homes of u35s unfit for habitation https://t.co/pV4fPyWZKY pic.twitter.com/T5WE4T3c4p

— John Healey MP (@JohnHealey_MP) January 29, 2018

What’s on

Two sessions of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee this afternoon will examine first the private rented sector and second the Draft Tenants’ Fees Bill