HELEN HAYES SLAMS TORY HOUSING PLANS
Dulwich and West Norwood MP Helen Hayes has slammed Tory housing plans set to be debated in the House of Commons tomorrow (Tuesday 5th January 2016.)
The proposals include:
Forcing councils to sell council homes in order to fund the extension of the right to buy for Housing Association tenants
Making council tenants with two earners on the London Living Wage pay market rent to continue to live in their council homeEnding lifetime council tenancies and replacing them with 2-5 year tenancies
Redefining affordable housing as a ‘starter home’ to purchase at up to £450,000 in London
Blocking councils from using the planning system to deliver new affordable homes in the way that Southwark Council has delivered more than 2,000 new affordable homes in the last five years
These come on top of cuts to Southwark’s council housing budget amounting to £1.3billion over the next 30 years – a devastating blow to hard working tenants and leaseholders and to those on the waiting list for a genuinely affordable home.
Helen Hayes, who spent five weeks in November and December debating the Tories’ Housing and Planning Bill line by line as a member of the Public Bill Committee, says: “If passed this bill would be a devastating blow to existing tenants, as well as the tens of thousands of people on housing waiting lists across London.
“We need to be building more homes of all types – social rented, starter homes to buy, shared ownership and larger family homes to solve the housing crisis in London.”
“The Tories should be recognising the commitment of Labour councils such as Southwark to delivering new, genuinely affordable homes, and making it easier, not harder, for them to do so.”
