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Teresa Pearce MP, Shadow Housing Minister, speaking at Labour Party Conference 2016, said:

Conference, it is an honour to stand here as the Shadow Housing Minister and with a temporary wider brief including Communities and Local Government.

It’s a huge portfolio so forgive me for the ground that I will not cover this afternoon.

But first I want to say to Labour councillors up and down the country, thank you.

New and demanding responsibilities have been transferred to local government, but without the funds to deliver.

But in Labour run councils you are making a difference and I am proud of the ingenuity you have shown in the face of difficult choices, finding new solutions, demonstrating just what Labour can do in power.

Councils like Derbyshire that has established a development company to build homes on some of its land for key workers. The council will provide the mortgages too.

Just one example of many displayed by our Councils who are a vital source of Labour representation, and an increasing inspiration on policy.

Innovating, forward looking, credible policy, that is Labour in power in local government.

And next year we have important Mayoral elections, including Steve Rotheram here in Merseyside. Both Marvin in Bristol and Sadiq in London have hit the ground running and one of the biggest issues they face is the housing crisis.

If anyone wants to know where the Government’s housing priorities lie, it’s there for all to see in The Housing and Planning Act.

A divisive, aggressive, flawed Act, which includes an all-out attack on social housing.

It will lead to the loss of affordable homes.

It fails to help those in the private rented sector.

It fails to offer genuine help to those trying to get on the property ladder.

And it totally fails to help the ever increasing numbers of people up and down the country facing homelessness.

In truth, there’s little of any merit in this Tory Government’s plans for housing.

They’ve slashed housing benefit payments to young people under 35, failed to build social housing, allowed private sector rents to rocket and forced millions into low paid, insecure employment; making owner occupation impossible.

Is it any wonder then that 40 per cent of adults under 34 are still living with their parents and still the Housing Benefit bill continues to balloon.

It is currently running at £25 billion every year because millions are still forced into the private sector as there is no alternative.

It makes no economic sense whatsoever.

This is not just a crisis for those who are homeless or those who are living in overcrowded slums. It’s a crisis for all of us.

The housing crisis is not just about bricks and mortar. It’s about people and their life chances.

Without a stable home, education and health are affected, and family cohesion can be shattered.

It’s about the children under 10 who have already been in three primary schools, and the teachers who are struggling to deal with classroom churn every month.

It’s about the GPs who cannot build patient relationships because patients in their thousands move on and off the register each year as they shift from one private rented home to another.

It’s about the children who grow up disaffected, unable to build the roots and childhood friendships that are vital to self-esteem.

It’s about the isolation of the elderly who have spent their whole lives in a street that now has numerous “houses of multiple occupancy” in it and they no longer know their neighbours.

And then there are all the families struggling to meet next month’s mortgage payments.

Those who are living in fear of losing a job or being sick.

Losing your job shouldn’t mean losing your home, but for many families it does.

MP and councillor surgeries are full of families who they tell us they are living in damp, overcrowded conditions.

They tell us their accommodation is making their children ill.

They tell us that, for all this, they pay extortionate rent.

They tell us that they fear eviction.

They tell us that they are desperate.

And they are.

We are facing the biggest housing crisis in a generation and the Tories have no answers other than building starter homes for the few.

So what would a Labour Housing and Planning Act look like?

We would remove the shackles from local government so they could build the homes of all tenures and infrastructure their communities need.

Labour will commit to building over a million new homes over the next Parliament with half social housing, and invest in the construction skills to tackle the skills shortage and train up a generation.

And through our National Investment Bank and regional development banks, we’ll also provide the necessary infrastructure.

In the private rented sector end of tenancy is a rising cause of homelessness, so we would change the rules on tenancies where a three year lease becomes the norm.

Setting up not-for-profit lettings agencies to promote longer-term, stable tenancies for responsible tenants and good landlords.

Introduce a national standard to ensure private rented properties are fit to live in.

We would reverse the Government’s ‘Pay-to-Stay’ policy and, following the examples set by Wales and Scotland, we will suspend the Right to Buy. The right to buy can only make sense in a time of surplus, in a time of shortage it makes no sense at all.

The difference between us and the Tories is they think housing is about property but we know it’s about homes and life chances.

And we must now all work together to secure a Labour Government so that we can transform our country and improve the lives of the people we seek to serve.    

ENDS