Affordable homes for all

Speaking on the housing crisis today at the TUC congress, Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner hailed the housing campaigners and tenants who have been fighting back against evictions and the demolition of their housing estates.

“Despite housing being a fundamental human right, we have a government that has seemingly taken delight in making the crisis ever deeper,” he said.

“It is just one reason why we welcome the election of Jeremy Corbyn and his belief that everybody should have a home they can afford to live in,” Steve added.

He highlighted how “vanishingly few areas” are now affordable and pointed to the TUC’s research which found that in close to 90 per cent of areas, house prices were five times higher than local salaries.

Taking aim at the private rented accommodation market, Steve pointed to the fact that private renters in Britain pay the highest rents in Europe, spending almost half their take home pay on rent.

“And without action it will get worse,” Steve said. “Rents are forecast to rise by more than twice as much as pay over the next 25 years. For those who want to own a home it is fast becoming an impossible dream.”

Turner criticised the lowering of the benefit cap, which, he said will place the south of England and our inner cities out of bounds for unemployed workers and their families to live.

“None of this has to happen,” Steve noted.

He called for a housing policy that returns to being about providing homes and not “investment opportunities”.

“We can build a million new homes,” he argued, while also calling for the end of automatic right to buy and introducing rent controls and tenant security.

“Investing in housing grows our economy, creates jobs and apprenticeships, and importantly, homes for all.”