1. because house prices are completely unaffordable in certain parts of the UK (particularly London), many are forced to rent privately. With a number of properties left empty due to speculative foreign investment, and very strong demand for housing, rents are often excessive. This allows landlords to profit from the back of people who have no choice but to accept these inflated rates.
2. waiting lists for council housing are long and oversubscribed in the thousands.
3. the quality of private accommodation is often simply not good enough, and landlords are not properly held to account. How can it ever be acceptable for children, or anyone else, to live in a damp environment?
These problems are not sustainable. So, if re-elected, what is Labour going to do about it?
1. Labour will look to build 200,000 new homes per year to 2020 - this will make houses more affordable, help to reduce rents and will increase the supply of good quality housing stock. To help make this happen Labour will seek to invest as well as to prevent cynical commercial strategies such as land hoarding.
2. Labour will look to introduce tougher standards on landlords, because it’s simply not acceptable that they should be able to profit while allowing people to live in a damaging environment.
3. Labour will reverse the Bedroom Tax, which not only affects some of the most vulnerable people such as people with disabilities, but actually costs the country more in housing benefit when people are forced into more expensive private accommodation.
4. Labour will seek to tackle some of those problems associated with foreign investment, such as possibly increasing council taxes on empty properties to deter this practice.
