Labour councillors oppose the Housing Bill
In Lambeth most households are renting – only a third are owner occupiers. About 35% of Lambeth households are renting from the council or housing associations. The government’s new Housing Bill will severely reduce council housing and other forms of affordable housing and do not tackle London’s housing crisis and its ever increasing rents and house prices.
The Housing Bill going through parliament will:
- Charge council and housing association households in work with a new “Pay to Stay “ tax to government if they want to stay in employment and in their home: increasing rents for some by £15,000.
- Force the council to sell hundreds of its council homes on the open market
- Reduce new council tenancies to 2 -5 years.
- Developers will no longer build genuinely affordable homes for local people as part of new construction developments
Through the Town Planning process Lambeth council has gained 2,500 homes for social and affordable rent from private developers in the last five years, including a large number of new council homes. But we still have more than 21,000 people on the waiting list and the almost 1,900 homeless families with 4,900 children in statutory temporary accommodation.
To find out more see:
http://www.lambeth-labour.org.uk/toryhousingbill
http://www.local.gov.uk/briefings-and-responses/-/journal_content/56/10180/7529077/ARTICLE