Housing

Debate between Diane Abbott and Emma Reynolds

Wednesday 10th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Emma Reynolds]

Given that the hon. Gentleman is such a witty performer in the House, I am sure he can see the distinction between our proposals and 1970s-style rent control, which was never a proposal of the Labour party and which would have meant the state setting the level of rents. I was opposed to that and we never had it in our manifesto or in our plans.

[Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend not accept that the crippling level of rents in London is a cause of increasing concern to young Londoners and their families? In every poll and interaction with them, Londoners are demanding a level of rent stabilisation and—yes—workable rent control.

[Emma Reynolds]

I am sympathetic to the concerns that my hon. Friend expresses, but we take different positions on this issue. I am not in favour of the state setting rent levels.

Private Rented Sector

Debate between Diane Abbott and Emma Reynolds

Wednesday 25th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab)]

Is my hon. Friend aware that the issues in the private rented sector are a particular problem in London, where renters are the victims of an increasingly dysfunctional housing market and spiralling house prices and rents?

[Emma Reynolds]

My hon. Friend pre-empts a point I was about to make. She is absolutely right that the private rented sector is particularly problematic in high-demand areas, not only in London, but in Oxford, York and other parts of the country where demand is far outstripping supply, which is one of the reasons rents are so exorbitant.

Housing (London)

Debate between Diane Abbott and Emma Reynolds

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Westminster Hall

[Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Teresa Pearce) on securing this important debate. She spoke eloquently about the problems faced by tenants in the private rented sector.

There is a housing crisis across England, but it is clear that it is particularly acute here in London. We have heard both passion and anger from Opposition Members about that acute shortage of housing and of affordable homes in London. It is no surprise that four out of five Londoners think that the capital is in the grip of a full-scale housing crisis. Earlier this week the economic forecaster Ernst and Young warned, very worryingly, of “bubble-like” conditions in the London housing market. The average house price in the capital is £437,000 and is predicted to rise to an eye-watering £600,000 by 2018. That is simply unaffordable, not only for people on low incomes in London but for people on middle incomes and decent salaries as well. Many of my hon. Friends have made that point.

Moreover, as many of my hon. Friends have underlined, there are massive problems in the private rented sector. As my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead highlighted, whereas 10 years ago one in 10 Londoners was renting, now it is one in four, and that number is growing rapidly. Rents are at record highs, are rising much faster than wages and consume more than 50% of average family incomes in London.

Homelessness and rough sleeping have both risen sharply since 2010, and the number of families in temporary bed-and-breakfast accommodation is, tragically, at a 10-year high. My hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) spoke eloquently about the shocking circumstances in which those people have to live. The housing benefit bill is rising and the problem is compounded by the cruel and unfair bedroom tax, which a Labour Government would scrap.

Those facts are symptoms of a wider failure to supply the number of houses that we need. In England we are not building even half the number of homes we need to keep up with demand; in London, we are building barely a third. The Mayor of London does not seem to understand the problem. He keeps talking about numbers, but he is not delivering on any of the targets that he sets himself.

[Ms Abbott]

Does my hon. Friend agree that supply on its own will not solve the London problem because of the relentless upward pressure on market prices?

[Emma Reynolds]

My hon. Friend pre-empts the next section of my speech. The problem is not just about numbers but about affordability. All of my hon. Friends have talked about the distorted notion of affordability that the Government have introduced. The idea that 80% of market rent in London is affordable is plainly ludicrous. It is plain stupid—it just is not the case.

I will give the Minister some figures. In Westminster, to be able to pay 80% of market rent for a three-bedroom home tenants would have to earn an annual income of £109,000. In Southwark, renting a two-bed flat at 80% of market rent would require an income of £44,000. The severe shortage of affordable housing is accelerating what many of my hon. Friends have been talking about, which is social segregation here in the capital and, if we are not careful, a hollowing out not only of central London but of London more generally. My hon. Friends have talked about midwives, nurses, teachers, policemen and firefighters not being able to afford to live in the communities where they work. That was not the case 10 or 20 years ago.