THE PEOPLES' PRESSURE GROUP

Britain has a serious housing crisis. This crisis is not new. No government in the last ten years has made any attempt to solve it. This is a betrayal. A betrayal of the people in our society who cannot afford 'affordable homes'. People have a right to have the security of a permanent home, a secure base and a foundation on which to build a better future.

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There are nearly 1 million families in Britain on council house waiting lists. 3.6 million are living in an overcrowded home. 2.5 million are unable to afford their rent or mortgage. 2.5 million are in 'hidden households' - adults living with parents or in house shares. Only 6,463 units of social housing were built in 2017/18. Council house stock is at an all time low because of the 'right to buy' scheme. Houses sold in the scheme have never been replaced. Families - who will probably never be able to afford to buy a home - are forced to rent at exorbitant rates from the private sector. Many of the houses they rent are council houses sold to private landlords (nearly 50% of council houses sold in the 'right to buy' scheme are in the hands of private landlords). This year the government will pay out more than £26 billion in housing benefit. This ludicrous figure is a mark of the failure of successive governments' housing policy - or the lack of one.

 

Dealing with the housing crisis has to be be a top priority. 

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Regional Housing should replace Council Housing. Each region would be charged with eliminating their waiting lists within one parliament. Regions should be allowed to borrow money to build regional houses. These properties should be treated as a long-term investment and therefore a regional asset. Rents should be based on the total income of those living in the property. The aim would be to build 300k social housing units pa for five years.

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Right to buy will only be allowed if a replacement house has been built to replace the one being sold. The total  proceeds of any sale will go back to the region to be used for new housing. To be eligible for right to buy, the tenant must have lived in the property for five years. A maximum discount of 20% would apply which would be repayable if the house was sold within five years.

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Other measures would include:

 

a) House prices: Artificially cheap credit, promoted by banks who are hooked on property lending and land investment in preference to investing in businesses, has been the prime cause of asset price inflation. Successive governments have used tax exemptions and other advantages to turn the ground beneath our feet into a speculative money machine. Farmland is used as a tax shelter, and as a result farmers are being priced out. Land prices have skyrocketed (land values have increased by 412% since 1995). The tax issues relating to land must be addressed, and there needs to be urgent and wide-ranging land reform.

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b) High Street regeneration: Incentives should be introduced by each region to convert vacant commercial high street properties into residential housing and bring new life back into Britain's high streets.

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c) Regional Tax (Council Tax): Discounts, for whatever reason, should be ended.

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d) Empty properties: There are 630,000 empty properties in Britain. Private properties which remain empty for more than eighteen months will attract an Empty Property Tax equivalent to twice Regional Tax (Council tax). Regions should be required to ensure that all vacant residential properties they hold are in good condition and available for rent. 

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e) Planning: The housing needs of the country are being stymied by a slow, obstructive and expensive planning process. There should be a complete - and swift - reform of all planning rules.

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f) Council Tax (Regional tax) bands will be updated to reflect today's property values and four new 'super bands' will be added. 

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g) Rental property standards. All landlords will have to be on a national 'Register of Landlords' for which there would be an annual registration fee based on the number of properties in the landlord's portfolio. Landlords would have to maintain and service their properties to a defined standard. Failure to do so would result in removal from the register.

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h) Rent controls. The maximum annual increase in rent allowed in any five year period would be the rate of inflation. Landlords would be allowed to apply to have the rental rate for a property reviewed every five years.  This would be done regionally. Any increase approved would be based on the average rental values in an area for a similar property.

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