“It’s pants being in opposition,” says John Healey as he addresses a packed housing fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Brighton. “It really stinks.”
The shadow housing secretary is frustrated at his lack of power, but energised by the party’s progress towards it.
“We can’t do what we want to do but we can argue for what we want to do,” he says.
“We are winning the arguments; we are winning the national arguments.”
Healey (pictured) is a respected figure in the UK housing policy debate after rising to prominence during the debate on the Housing and Planning Bill last year. Despite Labour’s political weakness at the time, he claimed 19 defeats over government on measures in that bill – a figure he says was double the number of defeats in all the rest of the bills in that session put together.
“They still won the legislation, but we won the arguments”, he says. “And there are large parts of that legislation which are now simply on the shelf.”
Following the Labour Party’s resurgence at the General Election in June, a shot in the driving seat of UK policy is now within reach. What would housing policy led by John Healy look like?
Healey’s promises include:
■ a new fully-fledged housing department, to recognise the scale of the crisis, knock heads together in Whitehall, and spearhead the action that needs to be taken at national level to start to fix the housing crisis;
■ a big, genuinely affordable, housebuilding programme to rent and to buy, including the biggest housebuilding programme for over three decades, with social rented homes as a big part of that;
■ a consumer rights’ revolution for private renters;
■ a plan that will end rough sleeping homelessness within a parliament; and
■ for young first-time buyers, a new type of discounted first-buy home discounted, with a price linked to local area average wages.
More policy detail is needed to take an informed view of its impact. However, his message of the “need to change” has struck a chord with the public and parts of the industry.
David Montague, chief executive of L&Q, said: “We feel like our world just changed. With the advent of Brexit, with Grenfell Tower, we need to rethink the way that we connect with our residents, with our tenants.
“Eighty per cent of housing association chief executives voted to remain at the Brexit Referendum; 65% of our residents voted to leave. There is this chasm between those people who are responsible for our homes, our country, and the local people that lie in our homes. Somehow we need to get closer to our residents so that we can deliver lasting change.”
Promoting the voice of tenants
Healey says promoting the voice of tenants would be a priority for Labour, particularly in the aftermath of Grenfell Tower. “It will change nothing if left to Tory ministers, so work with us to make sure Grenfell does lead to the very profound changes to housing the country needs,” he says.
“When tenants at Grenfell, and more widely, as other sections of our country do, feel marginalised and ignored, things must change.”
Housing is a priority issue for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and is seen as a potential winning agenda for Labour. “Housing played a part in that General Election [result] back in June,” Healey says. “And it played a part because whereas Theresa May had no plan, had no ideas, offered no hope on housing as she did on everything else – we did.” Labour put together a dedicated housing manifesto in six or seven weeks and are now working on more detailed policies.
“The first shadow cabinet meeting after that General Election Jeremy Corbyn said to each of us, right, we take our manifesto, a big part of that remarkable result in June…and we develop out our ideas within it,” Healey says.
His message to developers? “Work with us” to tackle the country’s housing challenges. As policy discussion groups take place to build on the policies set out in the manifesto, the time to influence Labour strategy is now.
To send feedback, e-mail Louisa.Clarence-Smith@egi.co.uk or tweet @LouisaClarence or @estatesgazette
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