Andrew Dismore

The problem in brief

Even before my days years ago  as a Westminster Councillor and Labour Group leader, fighting Dame Shirley Porter’s infamous homes for votes policy, I have seen it as one of the prime duties of any elected politician to ensure that people have a decent and affordable place to live. For many, especially in today’s housing market, that means that we must increase the availability of social rented housing. When Porter was selling off Council homes to whoever would take them, she exemplified the Conservatives’ attitude to homes for ordinary people. Now with the Conservative led coalition, this heartlessness is reconfirmed. Things will get worse, as housing benefit is cut and new social tenancies do not have security. Over 350,000 households, almost 10 per cent of the total in London, are on a local authority waiting list, up from 179,000 ten years ago. Barnet Council has the worst record in the country, which is why it’s abolished its waiting list altogether, and changed its lettings system for the few properties that come available..

Targets for affordable and social homes

When Boris Johnson abolished Ken Livingstone’s eminently sensible targets for affordable and social homes in any major development, he abolished the hopes of thousands of families for a decent roof over their head. So  first and foremost, we must bring back those targets to ensure that developers play their part in building affordable homes for ordinary people, not those on £74,000 a year which is Boris Johnson’s threshold. He has broken his election promise to build 50,000 affordable homes over three years. We especially need to specify social housing of a family size, in all developments needing GLA approval.

Housing benefit

The government’s Housing Benefit cap being imposed on people in private rented homes will hit lower income Londoners, and older and disabled people disproportionately, especially in Camden and in Barnet.  Many will be forced out of their homes or deeper into poverty where even Barnet’s Tory Council are getting worried by the likely consequences. I have been challenging Barnet Council time and again to come clean on their estimates of the impact. In Camden, young people  aged between 25 and 35 will lose an average of £116 per week

In Camden, local people will be forced out, possibly into the less expensive parts of Barnet. In turn in Barnet, people will be pushed even further away, as the increased demand from inner Londoners who have to move creates pressure on the already overstretched private rented sector in Barnet.  A large proportion of families affected are in work, particularly those living in 2 and 3 bedroom accommodation.   From being  economically active people, they will lose their jobs and their children their schools, through  the migration of the less well off as the Conservatives, harking back to the days of Porter’s gerrymandering, trying to secure an electoral advantage from their grand social engineering designs. This in turn will have a dramatic impact on local schools some of which will lose such a high proportion of their pupils that their viability could be in question.

We need accessible and fair regulation of private rents to ensure a reasonable deal for tenants and landlords, including young people’s rented homes especially for students, many of  whom are new to London. At times of increased pressure on the private sector, we need a tough approach to rogue landlords, too.

Decent Homes

The Labour Government’s decent homes initiative was a great attempt to sort out decades of underinvestment in repairs and modernisation, but it was woefully managed by Barnet Council, who ran out of money even though £88.5 million had been allocated to them by the Labour Government. Even worse, the regeneration estates got nothing.

It was wrong to make decent homes conditional on an ALMO, too. Although this may work for Tory controlled Barnet with their disinterest in council housing, Camden tenants should have been treated equally without discrimination for wanting to stay with the Council.

So we must campaign for the resources to end the backlog of major repair works and complete the Decent Homes programme with decent standards for social homes into  the future.

Housing associations

When they first began, housing associations were local and small, aimed to develop homes for local people. Over the decades many have become huge businesses, social enterprises in name but not necessarily in nature or conduct. Far too many are far too remote from, and unaccountable to, the tenants they serve. We need to do much more to encourage greater involvement of tenants and residents in running their homes, and to democratise housing associations, including backing mutual and co-operative housing projects- as housing associations originally were intended to be.

Regeneration schemes

Nearly every one of the major schemes in Barnet has been stalled for years, as the Council dithers over the decisions, with one eye over their shoulder at the electoral implications for the Tories, of the new residents that would take up any new homes in the regenerated estates. We  must keep up the pressure on them to get on with building the new homes and also ensuring that the existing properties that will still be around for many years, are fit to live in.

Investment in housing

The Conservative led Government’s cuts to Labour’s plans for London housing investment of £400m and have led to a complete standstill for new public housing..  London is particularly badly hit by the cuts and so the housing crisis will get much worse.

The London Mayor needs the powers necessary to get things moving , including an expanding council house building programme through  the ability to raise funds for housing. This requires the release of publicly-owned land to provide affordable homes in mixed developments. Councils must be empowered to borrow against their assets and to build homes again, forming joint ventures as necessary. This requires the use of private capital including bonds.

We also need to find imaginative ways of bringing back into use the tens of thousands of empty properties, especially in the private sector, that are in every Borough. If we can use this neglected asset, we can address the housing shortage much more quickly and expensively.