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Private landlords should not be given housing benefit with ‘no strings attached’, says shadow housing secretary
Private landlords that receive housing benefit should not be given that money without the conditions of housing they provide being scrutinised, the shadow Labour housing secretary has said.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Housing 2021 conference in Manchester today, Lucy Powell, who took over as shadow housing secretary from Thangam Debbonaire in May this year, said that landlords that house housing benefit claimants should not simply be given rental income “with no strings attached” in the future, noting that the Labour Party is considering action to address this.
“On housing benefits we spend a huge amount every year, most of which goes to the private rented sector, and we ask nothing in return from that money,” she said.
“We are going to be looking at tenants in the private rental sector. There is a lot more we can do about landlord licensing and landlord registration schemes.”
Labour could launch new policies aimed at solving the building safety, zero carbon and housing crisis at the forthcoming party conference in Brighton later this month.
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Ms Powell hinted that the party is considering launching policies that could link retrofitting of homes to meet the climate agenda with a broad fund to fix the cladding scandal.
If and when it is convenient to do so, towers that need work to be deemed safe from fire risks could also potentially be retrofitted at the same time to improve their climate credentials, she said.
Ms Powell explained: “Ed Miliband has been calling on the government to bring forward the £30bn climate stimulus. If we seize that opportunity [to improve people’s homes] then we can use that [funding] to reduce people’s household bills over time.
“It is also an opportunity for a new generation of skills and jobs.
“In the context of the building safety crisis there is work that needs to be done there, but as we are doing that, we could also be doing the retrofitting at the same time.
“The building safety crisis cannot wait until the next election.”
In two sessions at the conference, Ms Powell also mentioned that Labour would look to tackle the issues raised from people being priced out of buying homes in their local area, sometimes due to rising prices and a large proportion of homes being second homes or holiday lets.
Ms Powell said: “There are too many incentives on second home owners and holiday lets – and there are no disincentives and so on, so the tax regime on second home owners [may be considered].
“We are also looking at schemes where local residents and workers get first dibs on new homes. We need to look at bigger solutions than those.”
Mr Powell also hinted that Labour may look at tax and incentives as a way of boosting supply. She said: “The link between earnings and housing has broken now, and this has to be looked at with supply, so we have to tackle supply issues but we should look at tax, reward and incentive.”
She added that those who can “need to pay more from their capital assets”.
Asked whether Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham could be a potential future Labour Party leader, Ms Powell said that the position “was occupied” at present and that MPs do not discuss party matters at conferences.
But the she praised Mr Burnham for a number of his initiatives over the course of the pandemic.
Ms Powell said: “Andy Burnham’s leadership on homelessness in Manchester has been phenomenal and it shows what you can do. He doesn’t have direct powers over those issues, but those soft powers as directly elected mayor of co-ordinating and driving forward have been exemplified here in Manchester…
“Me and Andy are old friends and close colleagues and do draw on Andy’s work greatly and will continue to do that, but it also shows the limitations of how you can help when you don’t have all the policy levers under your control – you can’t properly tackle the issue.”
