Corbyn promises £10bn bid to create 1m homes

JEREMY CORBYN has promised a future Labour government would build a million homes at a cost of about £10bn.

The commitment is very similar to the promise made by Labour at last year’s General Election when it pledged housebuilding would have hit 200,000 a year by the end of its first fiveyear term in office.

However, Mr Corbyn has set out plans to ensure that half of the homes built are council properties and for a new charter to increase protection for tenants in rented housing.

The estimated cost to the Government of building the new houses would be £10bn with the bulk likely to come from borrowing.

Mr Corbyn said: “Successive governments have failed to fix our broken housing market. Decent housing is a basic human need affecting everything we do and is a significant factor on stress and mental health.

“Our homes are where we should feel safe, yet for too many people housing is a source of anxiety – not security.

“And to a whole generation of our young people, the security of home ownership is rapidly becoming an impossible dream.

“That is why the next Labour government will reverse a generation of underinvestment in housing, particularly council housing, and give the chance of a decent, secure, affordable home back to every family and citizen.”

The Tenants’ Rights Charter would include a guarantee of three year contracts and protections against “unreasonable” rent increases and unsafe living conditions.

The housing plan is the latest in a string of policy announcements made by Mr Corbyn as he tries to fend off a challenge to his leadership from former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith.

Mr Corbyn’s critics have argued the slew of announcements contrasts sharply with a lack of policy over the first year of his leadership.