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Building homes ‘a priority’ for Labour – Miliband

Julia Rampen
Written By:
Julia Rampen
Posted:
Updated:
06/06/2013

Ed Miliband promised a future Labour government would build more homes and devolve more power to councils on rental issues in a speech on welfare today.

The Labour leader said the way to lower dependence on housing benefits was to increase the number of homes.

He said: “Ed Balls talked on Monday about how we invest for the future of our country. Clearly, the building of homes is high on that list. This will be a priority of the next Labour government.”

Thirty years ago, £80 of every £100 spent on housing was invested in building, he added. Today, the proportion is just £5.

Brits could not afford to pay billions on ever-rising rents, he argued, and called for a “radical devolution” of power to local authorities which would allow them to negotiate on behalf of tenants on housing benefit: “At the moment, we expect individual families to negotiate with their landlords.

“In these circumstances, it is almost inevitable that tenants end up paying over the odds. And so does the taxpayer, in the housing benefit bill. It’s time to tackle this problem at source.”

Councils which made savings through negotiations with landlords would be able to keep the money as long as a percentage was invested in building more homes, he added.

Miliband was speaking in Labour-led Newham, the London council which pioneered the use of licensing for all landlords.

Labour, which controls nearly half of all councils in England and Wales, has signalled its ambitions to move further in this area.

However, at least one prominent lender has declared itself reluctant to lend on properties subject to additional or selective licensing.


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