Labour’s social housing green paper, released last week, praises the effort Housing Associations have put into delivering affordable housing under increasingly difficult circumstances.
Here are some of the headlines from their green paper;
- Grant – funding of £4bn for new social housing.
- Right to Buy – suspended so as to stop the disposal of affordable housing.
- Decent Homes 2 – post-Grenfell Labour have said they would introduce new legislation forcing a retrofit of sprinklers in high rise blocks.
- FirstBuy homes – discounting a purchase price so that mortgage repayments are no more than three times a person’s income.
- Living Rent – rents to be set at no more than a third of average local household incomes.
- Freedom of Information Act – HA’s would be subject to the FOIA (an additional compliance requirement on the tails of GDPR).
While these ideas are only in an opposition green paper, and would be subject to both financing and Labour winning a general election, they give an idea of Labour’s current thinking.
