This unassuming building in Basingstoke has a very special place in my heart. It is the council house where I spent part of my childhood with my foster and later adoptive parents. I have such fond memories of the secure home that we were lucky to have; but this happiness is also tinged with sadness at the number of council homes, like this one, that have since been lost.
Since 1980, this country has sold more than 2 million social homes through right to buy and replaced only a fraction of them. In Southampton, we’ve felt that loss directly, at the same time that we’re facing rising costs for emergency accommodation.
That’s why I wholeheartedly back this government’s manifesto commitment to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation and to enhance protections for existing and new build social housing. And it’s why yesterday I was proud to vote for this Labour government’s social housing bill at second reading.
Here’s what it will do:
Reform Right to Buy eligibility to stem the loss of social housing, while ensuring that tenants who have lived in and paid rent on their homes for many years retain the opportunity to purchase them
Exempt newly built social and affordable homes from sale under Right to Buy for 35 years
Give councils first refusal when private providers sell a social home.
Simplify the planning system and stripping back the bureaucracy so that councils and providers can invest in new social and affordable homes with great confidence.Crucially, we are also strengthening protections for people who are affected by domestic violence, with stronger legal legal mechanisms to remove perpetrators from a social housing tenancy and enable victims to stay in their home or move to alternative accommodation as a sole tenant.
All of this is in addition to other steps this government has taken, including making the biggest long-term investment in social and affordable housing in recent memory.
Legislation alone will not solve every aspect of the housing crisis that faces Southampton and the rest of the country, but these are bold and meaningful steps in the right direction: protecting social housing and stopping the leaks in the bucket; protecting survivors of domestic abuse in their own homes; and giving councils the tools and the confidence to build again.
For my constituents who need a safe, affordable, secure home, that progress matters.