Labour call to campaign against “excessive rents”

A Labour pressure group wants the party to campaign on housing at the next General Election, including railing against what it calls “excessive rents”.

The Labour Party conference in October may be the last before the next General Election and is considered likely to be a showcase for party policies which may be campaign issues at the poll, which is widely expected next year.

The Labour Housing Group, an activist cohort within the party, is putting forward a so-called ‘model resolution’ to be adopted by local constituency Labour parties; if enough of them adopt the resolution, it will be debated at conference.

The model resolution is mostly a broad wishlist almost completely lacking in detail, but it makes a swipe at property conditions and rents early on.

The wording is:  

“In a rich country like Britain, it is a major scandal that many people are dying because of poor housing conditions, such as damp and mould, or have no home at all. 

“Many people cannot afford to heat their homes or pay an excessive proportion of their income on rent. Others fear poor fire-safety, live with dangerous cladding, or suffer under the feudal system that is leasehold. 

“We know that only Labour can fix Britain’s broken housing system. Labour already has the policies to do this, and our Shadow Front Bench is working with leaders across all sectors to ensure that the essential human right to decent and genuinely affordable housing can become a reality for all. 

“We need now to ensure every voter knows that transforming Britain’s housing will be a priority for the next Labour Government, especially as it underpins other priorities such as good health and social care, affordable living costs and achieving net zero. 

“Annual Conference agrees that the Labour Party will make housing a winning issue at local and national levels by: 

- Showing how things will be different under a Labour Government;

- Showing how we would develop an equitable, genuinely affordable, accountable, and sustainable housing system;

- Regularly promoting Labour’s policies for tackling housing failings that affect all tenures and ages, throughout the country.” 

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