BY RYAN FLETCHER housing hell


affordable homes in Britain. He said, “Rather than austerity we could have had investment in a large scale council house building programme, creating homes and decent work.


“Rather than leaving a basic necessity – homes – to a broken market we could have had rent controls and regulations on private landlords.


“Instead of a lost decade on pay we could have had rising living standards – the combination of these positive policies would have gone a long way to addressing the unfolding housing crisis.”


Without significant intervention, housing issues are set to become much worse in the coming years.


For instance, over half a million people under 40 who are unable to afford to climb onto the housing ladder as they age will no longer be able to afford to rent privately in retirement, according to a cross party parliamentary committee on housing and care for older people.


The vast majority of people now aged over 64 own their own homes or live in social housing – only 5.6 per cent live in private rented accommodation.


Because so many of today’s pensioners are homeowners, they are able to make ends meet in retirement as they have paid off their mortgages, despite their income halving once they no longer work.


But the number of people 64 and over who rent privately is expected to treble by 2046 – and at the same time, private rents are expected to continue to increase.


The committee’s MP estimate that about 52 per cent of pensioners by 2038 will be paying more than 40 per cent of their income in rent – rendering private rent


unaffordable for about 630,000 millennials in retirement.


“The number of households in the private rented sector headed by someone aged over 64 will more than treble over the next 25 to 30 years,” said Richard Best, the chair of the group.


“But unless at least 21,000 suitable homes are built a year, there will be nowhere affordable for them to live. The consequence is bound to be homelessness for some.”


The number of older households who live in unsuitable or unfit accommodation is also expected to rise dramatically from 56,000 now to 236,000 in 30 years’ time.


Such accommodation is linked to tens of thousands of pensioner deaths – a shocking 53,000 winter deaths of elderly people in the last five years have been attributed to living in cold, poorly insulated homes.


Unite member and social housing worker Graham McNabb has seen the impact of the housing crisis first hand and fully supports Labour’s policies to build more council homes and reform the rental market.


McNabb said, “It’s a no brainer. A decent, affordable, warm, well-insulated and secure home must be a basic human right. The best and only way to deliver this is through a major expansion of council housing, with secure tenancies and social rent.”


Unite member and health visitor Joyce Still also supports Labour’s plans to tackle the housing crisis, particularly because it will help to alleviate soaring homelessness rates.


She said, “The UK is the sixth biggest 31 uniteWORKS Winter 2019 Find out more VOTE 2019


economy on the planet. It ought to be capable of putting a roof over the head of every citizen. But the fact that it does not is the direct consequence of failed Conservative austerity policies.


“I welcome Labour’s commitment to set out a new national plan to end rough sleeping within the next Parliament.


Homelessness needs addressing now. It needs serious investment in social and genuinely affordable housing and a return to the building of council houses.”


Time for better housing


• Building of new council homes a priority


• Ensure a vibrant construction sector with a skilled workforce and rights at work


• Invest to build over a million new homes and by the end of the next Parliament


• Build at least 100,000 council and housing association homes a year for genuinely affordable rent or sale


• Scrap the Conservatives’ definition of ‘80 per cent of market rates’


• Stop sell-off of 50,000 social rented homes by suspending the right to buy


• Strengthen tenants’ rights in the private and social rented sector


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