News from Siân Berry: White paper is catching up with renting but where are council houses?

Sian Berry, Green Party London Assembly Member has reacted to the publication of the Government’s White Paper on Housing. [1]

Sian Berry says:

“As a private renter paying London rents I'm pleased to see the Government is at last catching up with the real world on renting. We have suffered from years of obsession with home ownership and a long list of failed policies such as 'help to buy', shared ownership and starter homes.

“But still their definition of affordable rent at 20 per cent below market rates is out of date. In London, City Hall has already defined a London Living Rent that relates to wages not market prices. If we can use this, then we have some hope of getting some new homes to rent that people can genuinely afford.

“There are still huge holes in this policy. Even if 50,000 truly Living Rent homes were built with these initiatives this would still only help five per cent of nearly 1 million London households who currently live in private rented housing. Devolved powers for smart controls on rent rises need to be looked at seriously for cities like ours.

“The biggest hole of all is the need to get councils building council homes again by lifting their borrowing caps. This is pure common sense that the Government should take action on for London. Across the city too many councils are building expensive private homes and demolishing council flats by the thousand. [2]

“If you ask people what will solve the housing crisis, they say more council homes, [3] but real help to do this is missing from this white paper. It even reinforces right to buy which has stripped away council homes for decades.

“The paper rightly focuses spatial development around good public transport links, which will benefit London but not if the policy results in weakened protections for the Green Belt. I have argued that this – and protection for the Metropolitan Open Land in London - should be strengthened to ensure we make the most of every town centre and brownfield site in the coming years.[4]

"If we don’t then we will see developers choosing greenfield sites first and the return of 1980s style car-dependent sprawl.”