Revealed: Massive scale of Tory war on social housing
214,000 rentals slashed PM’s ‘mission’ hypocrisy
THE number of new social rent homes has been cut by more than 200,000 since the Tories came to power, figures reveal.
Theresa May boasted in a keynote speech that tackling Britain’s housing crisis is her “personal mission”.
But shocking statistics buried in an official report reveal how the Tories have dramatically cut the amount of new cheaper housing rented out to poorer Brits.
And Labour Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey said the data proves the Tories have made the housing crisis worse.
When the Tories came to power in 2010, there were 270,000 new homes a year rented out by councils or housing associations to those on lower incomes.
Every year since then, there have been cuts to the number of social houses let, claims a report by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govern- ment. In total, there are now 213,501 fewer cheaper houses. The Tories diverted cash for social homes to “affordable rent” schemes, however they are often more expensive for tenants. Yesterday Mrs May promised an extra £2billion towards building affordable homes – but this desperately needed cash will not be available until 2022. In her speech to the National Housing Summit in London, she called for an end to the “stigma” of social housing.
She said the Grenfell Tower fire last year exposed how tenants feel “ignored” by those responsible for their homes and safety.
Mrs May added: “Many in society look down on social housing and, by extension, the people who call it their home. It shouldn’t be this way.”
But Lib Dem housing spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse branded her speech “hypocritical”.
THE victims of the country’s housing crisis deserved better than Theresa May’s flimsy intervention yesterday.
When there are more than one million people on council house waiting lists and tenants are struggling to pay sky-high rents, a few words of synthetic compassion and a woolly promise of extra money won’t cut it.
The Prime Minister dangled the offer of an extra £2billion for housing associations but this will not be available until 2022 and will be spread over six years.
Even if this cash does materialise it will hardly compensate for £25billion cut from the housing budget since 2010.
Nor was there any acknowledgement from Mrs May that her government had raised council house rents, overseen a rise in homelessness and broken its promise to build a like-for-like replacement for every council house sold under right to buy.
She then had the gall to claim the Tories were the champions of social housing.
To build the homes needed requires real ambition, not platitudes and piecemeal funding.