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Short on time? Thursday’s housing news in five minutes
A round-up of the top stories this morning from Inside Housing and elsewhere
Top story: Labour pledges £75bn programme to build 150,000 affordable homes a year
The housing crisis is emerging as a key matter on the election battleground and Labour will today bid to steal the impetus with an eye-catching manifesto pledge. The party has trailed to the media, including Inside Housing, that it will commit to spend £75bn on affordable housing, with 100,000 council homes and the rest to be delivered by housing associations. Labour is also looking to redefine the idea of affordable housing to make the term based on low incomes.
Conservatives pledge ‘at least’ a million homes over next five years
Not to be outdone, the Conservatives have today come out saying they will build a million homes over the next five years. However, it has already been highlighted that this is a downgrade on its previous target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid 2020s. Boris Johnson is also committing to ban so-called no-fault evictions and tempt Generation Rent voters with new measures on how property deposits are dealt with.
Lunchtime long read
Illustration: Andy MacGregor
The housing diversity survey 2019
Inside Housing has taken the temperature of how the sector is doing on diversity. While there are some encouraging signs, it remains a mixed picture.
Quote of the day
“Fixed-term tenancies simply introduce insecurity into the lives of tenants at a time when many of them face insecurity in the workplace as well as the negative impact of welfare reform.”
Martin Wicks, secretary of the Swindon Tenants Campaign Group, makes the case for secure tenancies.
In the papers
Picture: Getty
Many of the papers focus on Labour’s manifesto pledge on housing. The Mirror suggests the party’s plans could involve buying back thousands of Right to Buy homes. A fund will be set up to allow councils to purchase “at least” 5,000 former local authority homes a year, the paper claims.
Mr Johnson will announce a £5bn cash injection to ease the social care crisis, claiming it will avoid anyone having to sell their home to pay for costs, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Local news
Picture: Getty
Plans for a 1,000-home development on farm land in Warwickshire has reportedly been put on hold, the Coventry Telegraph reports.
A block of flats in Belfast might have to be knocked dow due to structural problems, the High Court has been told. More than 50 residents at the Library Square development are taking a class action over the alleged flaws, the BBC reports.
