One Nation Housing – 50 Policies for Labour

The Labour Housing Group has published this consultaton paper on its own website and on the housing site "Red Brick" in advance of their annual conference next month:-

Housing is central to Labour’s One Nation approach and our plans for economic recovery and social well-being.

Housing Investment

1.       Housing should be a central feature of a new National Infrastructure Plan looking ahead 10, 20 and 30 years at the country’s requirements for a modern economy and a cohesive society.

2.       Increasing housing investment in all tenures should be a key component of economic policy.

3.       To ensure an adequate supply of affordable homes, capital investment subsidies should be restored to 2008 levels as quickly as possible, with over-riding priority given to building homes for social rent.

4.       Councils should be enabled to invest much more under the new self-financing regime. The existing borrowing cap should be lifted and international conventions for measuring public borrowing (which exclude public corporations) should be adopted.

5.       Smart national accounting should be adopted that recognises how housing investment contributes to savings in health, education and benefits budgets. 

Planning for Housing 

6.       Councils should be under much stronger planning duties to meet housing needs in their areas, to plan for mixed communities, and to co-operate in planning for new housing across sub-regions, especially City regions.

7.       Local plans should prioritise social rented homes separately from other sub-market rented and low cost home ownership homes.

8.       Local communities should benefit more clearly from development through requirements for affordable housing and other facilities.  

9.       The New Homes Bonus should be ringfenced to be spent on housing infrastructure and benefits for communities affected by development only and should be phased out.

10.    A proportion of new homes should be made available to people from the local area.

11.    There should be much stronger duties on public agencies to release land for affordable housing.

12.    As a general principle, brownfield land should be used first and broad Green Belt protections should remain.

13.    Minimum space standards should be applied to all new homes.

14.    More rapid progress should be made towards achieving high environmental and energy efficiency standards in new homes, with higher priority given to cycling, play and recreation facilities.

15.    Planning permissions should expire sooner and should be based on project completion.

16.    Planning powers should enable Councils to take more effective enforcement action against rundown and empty homes that blight neighbourhoods.   

Tenure Reform

17.    Labour should undertake comprehensive tenure reform with standard mandatory tenancy conditions across private and social renting.

18.    Labour should adopt a plan to ensure that the Commonhold form of tenure, introduced by the last Labour Government, is more frequently used.

19.    Labour should renew its commitment to co-operative and new forms of tenure.

Private renting

20.    The private rented sector should be modernised and reformed, with longer tenancies, more predictable rents, better regulation, and proper enforcement of safety and decency standards.

21.    There should be tough regulation of letting agents and encouragement of not-for-profit agencies.

22.    Stronger enforcement action should take place in cases of landlord crime like harassment, illegal eviction and theft of deposits.

23.    All landlords should be registered in a self-financing scheme.

24.    As part of a package of reforms, Labour should review the tax treatment of private landlords to encourage investment, and reintroduce repair grants to achieve a new PRS decency standard.

25.    Shared housing should be regularly inspected to ensure compliance with standards. 

Social housing

26.    All social landlords in receipt of public money should be subject to effective regulation and occasional inspection to achieve higher standards in terms of customer service, efficiency, governance, accountability, and viability.

27.    Statutory requirements for tenants to be involved in scrutiny and in the regulatory system should be strengthened and the right to complain to the Ombudsman should be strengthened.

28.    Labour should ensure that housing associations remain not-for-profit organisations and review the scale and use of their surpluses.

29.    There should be genuine ‘like for like’ replacement of Council homes sold under Right to Buy. Give-away discounts should be restricted. Councils should be enabled to take an equity stake in sold property and strict covenants should be applied in relation to future letting and onward sale. 

30.    A new social sector Decent Homes Standard should be adopted with stronger environmental and communal area requirements.

31.    All social landlords should produce an annual Asset Management Statement, demonstrating how they have made best use of their stock. There should be a presumption against unjustified sales of property.

32.    Security of tenure should be restored so there is a basic requirement that a household cannot lose their home without the landlord’s case being tested in a court. 

33.    It should be a priority to ensure that homes that have been ‘converted’ from social to so-called ‘affordable rent’ revert back to their original status.  

Home ownership

34.    Government help for home ownership should be targeted to provide help with deposits for first-time buyers.

35.    Labour should require the energy industry to provide better grants and loans to ensure minimum standards in energy efficiency.

36.    Repair grants should be reintroduced in housing priority areas to enable owners to bring their homes up to basic standards.

37.    Labour should work with the development industry to introduce a Rent To Buy scheme for first time buyers.

38.    Labour should work with the mortgage industry to deliver more loans at higher loan-to-value ratios but without encouraging sub-prime lending. 

Tax and benefits

39.    The total benefit cap should be regionalised to take proper account of rent differentials between areas of the country.

40.    Local Housing Allowance should be made available up to the level of median rents in an area rather than the 30^th percentile.

41.    HB direct payments to landlords should be restored based on tenants’ choice.

42.    The ‘bedroom tax’ should be ended in favour of a new national plan to tackle under occupation based on incentives and a stronger ground for possession with a right to suitable alternative accommodation.

43.    Labour should develop and adopt a long term plan to switch from personal subsidies to investment subsidies in housing, reducing the benefit bill by reducing the cost of rented housing.

44.    A Mansion Tax on properties valued at £2m or more, or additional Council Tax bands, should be introduced.

45.    Options should be investigated to impose additional taxation on foreign buyers in the prime property market. 

46.    Additional charges should be levied on long-term empty properties and unused development land.

47.    A fundamental review of property taxation and reliefs should be undertaken, including council tax, capital gains, stamp duty, to find a system that meets wider housing objectives. 

General

48.    It should be a key target of a Labour Government to reduce homelessness. The strong homelessness safety net should be restored.

49.    A new National Tenant Voice should be created, for all tenants.

50.    Labour’s commitment is to encourage mixed and sustainable communities across the country - in cities towns and rural areas.

Lab12: One nation infrastructure in Britain

(Guest post by Cllr Gavin Pearson) Labour Party Conference saw the launch of a new ethos from Labour headlined “One Nation Labour” in Ed Miliband’s leader’s speech. Four hours later, a fringe reception held by the infrastructure industry, saw some interesting questions raised.

The World Economic Forum ranks the UK a disastrous 24th in the world for infrastructure. The British public face high and rising transport costs. We have drought warnings and flooding at the same time. Our rail franchises finance legal challenges not better trains. And we face an energy crunch.

Yet treating the UK as One Nation could solve this.

Infrastructure is what made the UK One Nation. Be it road, rail or canals, before these things were established, our clocks all read different times. Once they were built, we were as one.

But we remain divided. We may not want division between the North and the South, but economically speaking, we have it. Likewise with HS2. Rural villages declare it satanic while Birmingham welcomes business opportunities. Scotland and Wales meanwhile, look on enviously at the chance of such disagreement.

So can a One Nation spirit prove practical? It is probably too much to hope that rural areas will start welcoming wind farms in the service of their country. Many will continue to demand the lights stay on with energy produced out of their sight, far from their homes. But strategically, a plan for the nation makes sense.

A renewable future is likely to see over-generation in sparsely populated Scotland, with a grid able to carry it south to English cities. But it is also likely to see more generation and energy saving in people’s own homes and communities. Giving everyone a stake in the nation’s energy – and publishing a mapped out national strategy would be very One Nation.

Likewise we have plenty of national rainfall but no national distribution – thus vast areas face drought while others flood.

The biggest key though, remains transport. People need to move freely around their One Nation. Yet rail firms raise prices and franchises collapse in acrimony and legal costs. We break up the network and services into patches and regions instead of a cohesive nation.

At the same time our One Nation debates where around London we should build new airport capacity. But why not build a new hub airport in the North, serving Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle – instead of yet another London airport in the Thames that business travellers from the whole of our Islands must go to for flights to China and India?

Not that One Nation means ignoring the local. Look to Liverpool’s docks to see regeneration in practice. We can apply that to Hull. Look at London Overground’s impact at Dalston and Hackney. Let’s apply the model to West Bromwch and Bradford. One Nation should recognise its own successes and build on them for all.

So as Labour looks to a One Nation future, let’s take that ethos back to the hard-edge of nation building and bring our country together.