Angela Rayner set out measures to protect renters from fire safety defects, damp and mould in her speech at the Labour Party conference yesterday.
The deputy prime minister and housing secretary, committed to “building homes fit for the future”, while also pledging to bring forward a Remediation Acceleration Plan this autumn to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding on high-rise buildings.
Other measures Rayner announced on Sunday included consulting on a new “decent homes standard” for the social and private rented sectors, and a new law to make landlords respond to complaints about disrepair within legally binding timescales.
Here is part of Rayner’s speech relating to housing at the Labour Party Conference yesterday:
“14 years of Tory chaos has not just left its mark on people’s jobs, but on homes too.
Not enough are being built. The Tories failed to meet their targets year, after year, after year.
Michael Gove handed back nearly £2 billion to the Treasury in unspent housing funds. Mortgages have soared. Leaseholders are left at the mercy of eye-watering charges. Renters face crippling rent hikes in damp and mouldy homes. Homelessness is all around us.
The simple aspiration of a safe, secure and affordable home is further out of reach than ever and we can’t go on like this. So change must begin at home.
We are tackling the Tories’ housing emergency.
We will get Britain building and building decent homes for working people.
A new planning framework will unlock the door to affordable homes and provide the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.
And Conference, our renters’ bill will rebalance the relationship between tenant and landlord and end no fault evictions – for good.
Our long-term plan will free leaseholders from the tyranny of a mediaeval system.
And a cross-government taskforce will put Britain back on track to ending homelessness.
Whether you’re a leaseholder, a tenant, a home-buyer or without somewhere to live – this government is on your side.
But my mission is not just to build houses, it is to build homes.
Because we cannot build at any cost. These new homes must be warm, secure and most importantly safe.
We will give families the security they need to have the best start in life.
I know first-hand the difference a decent home can make.
When I was growing up we didn’t have a lot. But we had a safe and secure home. Today, not everyone does.
Working with the Prime Minister on the Grenfell Inquiry was the most sobering moment of my career: 72 lives lost, 18 children, all avoidable. A fatal failure of market and state. A tragedy that must never happen again.
It is completely unacceptable that we have thousands of buildings still wrapped in unsafe cladding seven years after Grenfell.
And that’s why we will bring forward a new remediation action plan this Autumn to speed up the process and we’ll pursue those responsible – without fear or favour.
This must lead to new, safer social housing for the future.
Under the Tories, new social housing plummeted.
We will reverse that tide – with an ambition to be build more social homes than we lose, within the first financial year of this Labour Government.
In my first weeks in office, I set out how we will start this council housing revolution.
But Conference, with Government support must come more responsibility.
This is why today I want to give you my promise that this Labour Government will take action to ensure all homes are decent and safe, and residents are treated with the respect they deserve.
And Conference, of course, many Housing Associations, councils and landlords do good by their tenants and I know how hard they’ve had it after 14 years under the Tories.
Which is why I will work in partnership with the sector to deliver the change.
I will clamp down on damp and mouldy homes by bringing in Awaab’s Law in the social rented sector this autumn and we’ll extend it to the private rented sector too.
We will consult and implement a new Decent Homes Standard for social and privately rented homes, to end the scandal of homes being unfit to live in.
We will also ensure social housing staff have the right skills and experience. And I will ensure 2.5 million housing association tenants in this country can hold their landlord to account for their high quality services and homes. So that repairs and complaints are handled faster, but more importantly, so social housing tenants are treated fairly.
I am under no illusion about the mountain we have to climb.
We all saw that this summer: violent extremists preyed on our communities and local councils were left picking up the pieces.
Local leadership is the foundation of strong communities.
That’s why I have put local government back where it belongs, at the heart of my department’s name and mission.”
The houses won’t get built, developers are battening down the hatches, but interested to know the views here.
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Agree totally
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We already have 2 large developments only half built here in Cornwall because the developers have gone bankrupt. As Rayner plans to allocate 1500 migrants per year to every local council and they must be housed we now know who will be housed in these new homes. She keeps referring to council houses but after just 3 years these can be purchased by the tenant at a huge discount which is a complete waste of tax payers money.
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Angela Rayner and her partner both bought Council houses on discounts.
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Says the woman who purchased 2 council houses bought by her and her husband and sold one at a huge profit without paying CGT and avoided prosecution because the time limit had run out. She will have to build another one million homes because that is the number of landlords who are now selling up.
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Planning objections are always slated for preventing houses being built. This is rubbish, 40% of sites with planning permission never get built on by developers (just do a quick google search to check). They just land bank and use the land with planning permission now worth 40-100 times what it was worth as an asset to borrow against. If they get leaned on they just dig up the land a bit and claim they have started to build. They don’t want to flood the market and drive prices down, what sane business person would do that? The only way affordable houses will be built at cost in quantity is if the Government/Councils do it themselves (fat chance!).
By the same token, look up what happens to about 40% of right to buy houses. They end up in the PRS (or used to anyway).Some buyers find financing a house purchase and paying for upkeep is not attractive so sell ASAP. Ex right to buy houses while cheaper are not so attractive to private buyers if still surrounded by Council properties so they are ideal PRS candidates
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Unfortunately under the Blair and Brown era all school leavers were encouraged to do a degree and anyone choosing to do an apprenticeship or study a practical skill at a College of Further Education, was deemed a second class citizen. The building sector has still not recovered and a lot of the skilled tradesmen are nearing retirement. This has held back developers and building output for 20 years and it is getting worse because they can no longer bring in skilled craftsmen from Eastern Europe.
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