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Housing

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
 Preamble

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
Under the Tories, private ownership or rental of housing was favoured: council tenants gained the right to buy their homes or were pressurised to transfer to housing associations. Councils were not allowed to use the £6 billion raised to repair or build more properties, and council house building fell from 78,000 in 1980 to less than 2000 in 1994. Council house rents rose at 3 times the rate of inflation, and tenants were made responsible for the costs of housing benefit to their fellows. When private homes were repossessed because people couldn't afford the payments there were few public sector homes to take them. 160,000 households were homeless in 1994. Councils were freed from their obligation to provide roadside sites for travellers.
Labour policy was:
1 To stop the pressure to transfer council houses to housing associations  
2 To release capital receipts so that councils could build more houses  
3 To undertake a major programme of repair and improvement to social housing  
4 To stop council tenants having to pay for the housing benefit of their fellows ?  
5 To build sufficient affordable housing to drastically reduce homelessness  
6 To make councils again provide sites for travellers  
In fact under New Labour:
1 Pressure continued with a target of 200,000 homes to transfer per year Left as under the Conservatives
2 Most of the receipts still could not be used for new council housing and only 3000 council houses were built in New Labour's 13 years Pledge partially carried out
3 This was made conditional on transfer out of council control and billions of pounds of repairs remained outstanding Pledge partially carried out
4 Council tenants still paid for their fellows' housing benefit Left as under the Conservatives
5 Less than one-sixth of new housing was affordable, leaving 1.8 million households on the waiting list for social housing  Left as under the Conservatives
6 After long delays provision of travellers sites was made mandatory Left as under the Conservatives
In addition:
Bullet point The number of rough sleepers fell steeply  
Bullet point A Rowntree report said the housing crisis was the worst since 1924  
Bullet point For new housing in the south-east density requirements were doubled and supporting facilities and infrastructure often inadequate  
Bullet point Shared-equity homes were intended to help first-time buyers  
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