Category: Housing

The comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Secretary, on 20 August 2020.

These figures highlight the urgent need to extend the evictions ban, to avoid thousands more people being made homeless in the run up to winter.

Before Covid, we already had devastatingly high numbers in temporary accommodation as a direct result of 10 years of Conservative government, whose policies have pushed people into poverty.

The Government have known for months that an evictions crisis is looming. Not for the first time, it has been too slow to take action and we’re now facing a potential disaster if the ban is lifted with no plan for what comes next.

The text of the speech made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Minister, on 14 July 2020.

With increased numbers of people forced into the benefits system because of the economic impact of the Coronavirus crisis and the Government’s failure to push forward emergency legislation to help people to keep their homes after the temporary ban on evictions ends in August, there will be many people who will be faced with looking for a new home in the private rented sector this Autumn. With this in mind, this landmark ruling must help to protect those people from discrimination by some rogue landlords refusing to take them on as tenants.

The Government needs to ensure that this finding will be properly enforced as an end to this discrimination and disseminated to all relevant landlords and organisations in order to protect people from losing their home.

Below is the text of the comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Secretary, on 10 July 2020.

These tragic deaths demonstrate the need to help homeless people off the streets during the pandemic.

Local councils worked hard to give people emergency accommodation as part of the government’s Everybody In policy. This was a good start, but the government has left out people who have found themselves on the streets since the start of lockdown.

The emergency measures of the last few months demonstrate we can end rough sleeping. We should grab this opportunity now – nobody should live, or die, on the streets.

Below is the text of the comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Secretary, on 9 July 2020.

It is unacceptable that the Chancellor tried to sneak out this huge bung to second home owners and landlords while millions of people are desperate for support. He should be targeting support to those who need it, not helping people invest in buy-to-let properties and holiday homes.

An unnecessary subsidy for second home-owners will only worsen the housing crisis by reducing the supply of homes overall.

We need a credible plan from Tory Ministers to build the homes our country needs and get people on to the housing ladder. We didn’t see that this week.

Below is the text of the comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Minister, on 6 July 2020.

We need emergency legislation to protect renters from evictions. But the Government seems to be more interested in protecting landlords’ incomes than preventing families from losing their homes in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

Rough sleeping had more than doubled under the Tories before coronavirus. If we go back to business as usual, many thousands of people will find themselves sleeping on the streets this winter.

This is one of the reasons why we need a Back to Work Budget focused on jobs, jobs, jobs, to prevent people from getting into difficulty with their rent.