Labour’s Plan to Solve the Rental Crisis Explained

With Labour so far ahead in the polls, it's likely that they'll need to deal with the housing crisis, one of the most important issues facing the UK electorate. So how might they try to tackle it? And will it differ significantly from the Conservatives?

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[hersdera]

The issue is that either the renter or the owner must in some way pay insurance and property taxes if they want a "permanent roof" with utilities like electricity, gas and water. Because of this, many people—at least in California, where I currently reside—are living in tents. No taxes, rent, mortgages, or insurance. The number of people who tell me they live in their car that I meet amazes me. Its crazy out here!

[bluegoose]

I'm not holding my breath. The people in power have promised this 17 times already and every time they fail to keep their promises. The housing situation was already starting to become existentially bleak and unrealistic in the 2010s, let alone now, where a studio apartment costs more than a 3 bedroom did not very long ago.

[vod]

At first i was like "short answer, they won't"

Than i heard "labour is going to attack the supply side" and i remain cautiously optimistic.

However - this notion of "home ownership" comes from the idea that a home is an investment - its not, its a commodity, this thinking is what got us here. If you vote for homes as an investment, the incentive is to restrict supply via the ballot.

And voters on both sides need to get that through their thick skulls - especially the younger generation that still hasn't bought into this scam.

[griegomas]

"will ineffective politicians fix something?"

No

[kevburke]

I'm from Dublin and we're getting the same spiel.

Remember, if the new houses aren't affordable on an average salary, it won't fix sh*t.

[trydowave]

A politician saying their gonna build more houses... well. I haven't heard that before... you know, for the last 20 years. What a bunch of W⚓s.

[foregone_roulette]

The UK is a country being looted in real time by elderly bureaucrats and the wealthy, and its incredibly sad to watch as someone whose family immigrated from there years ago. I hope Labour can do something substantial, but Starmer seems cut from the same cloth as Blair and he's a large part of the reason Britain basically has two identical neoliberal parties that work for the two groups mentioned above.

[JackChurchill]

How about either:
Only permanent British residents can become registered landlords. Or,
Only incorporated companies registered as paying tax on that property in the UK can own property in the UK.

If housing must be "capitalist" then guarantee that it all happens within the UK tax authority. This stops the money laundering, stops the empty home investment portfolios, stops the tax evasion, and stops the exploitation.

But I didn't see those in Labour's review... So...

[emperorvader]

My Gran (who I hated) spent nearly all of her money to fix her house since the landlord refuses to meet basic standards and pay for maintenance. So when the refurbishment is finally completed and she is happy with it she is kicked out and moved to a similarly poor kept house down the road.

[EBW]

Why not restrict landlords using company/companies to buy and own more than 10 properties? There are lots of this kind of landlords owing 20+ or even 50+ properties in their company investment portfolio.

[leemccourt]

Scrap right to buy, the biggest mistake ever., then buy to let, too many people bought too many properties and had no idea how to be proper landlords. Finally, the cost of a house is insane. 30 years ago I bought a 2 bedroom flat in London for £61k, the same flat is now £340k. Insane.

[danbee]

Easier to build homes, but not making it easier to rent available homes btw. And building more won't mean jack shit if you're going to import the third world to lower working class wages.

[legomovieman]

Will Blairities beat Blairities? Nobody knows.

[Daniel__]

People will have to accept the possibility that we won't ever return to 3%. If sellers must sell, home prices will have to decline, and lower evaluations will follow. Sure I'm not alone in my chain of thoughts.

[thomasfyfield]

Native Britains births rates are below replacement and housing should be going down in price. This problem is manufactured and it is by design people are not buying houses.

[martindornan]

Stop selling off the social housing with lower rents.
Many of these houses eventually end up owned by private landlords with higher rents.
More social housing would be built by councils if people couldn't buy the council properties with a large discount, leaving the councils to pay the full amount of money borrowed to build the property.

[andrewberwick]

no mention of council building homes either

[jeffhgv]

The housing crises has struggled since the early 90s. Impossible to catch up.

[frasermcclennan]

Please can TLDR consider the recent work of Nick Bano in ‘Against Landlords’ in their future analysis of UK housing issues, in particular the central argument that supply is not simply about building houses, but rather also about releasing houses from landlordism and into ownership by the majority.

[smoche]

5:58
"This would hit Landlords particularly hard"
Oh no! Anyway