Category: Housing

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.

Below is the text of the comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Secretary, on 30 June 2020.

The Westferry scandal shows that for all their fancy language, the Tories are simply prioritising the demands of housing developers at the expense of people who need affordable homes.

The arrogance of Robert “three-homes” Jenrick proposing a roll-out of ill-adapted rabbit hutches is staggering – permitted development has been shown to be a failure and this is just another example of the Tories doing favours for their property developer mates. Meanwhile, our climate change targets are urgent, and there are millions of existing homes which need insulation and energy efficiency.

Instead of thinking about housing developers’ business interests, the government should be focusing on the millions of people who see home ownership as an impossible dream, or the many key workers who have been stuck for years on council housing waiting lists and invest in high-quality, truly affordable homes which are well insulated and energy efficient and help to meet our zero-carbon emissions targets.

Below is the text of the comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Secretary, on 30 June 2020.

A real terms cut in funding for affordable housing shows where the Tories’ priorities really lie: slashing planning regulations for their wealthy developer backers, not building good quality, environmentally sustainable and truly affordable housing for workers.

It’s no wonder that Government wants to scrap planning regulations: the evidence from the Robert Jenrick cash-for-favours scandal shows us how desperate they are to help billionaire donors abuse the planning system and ride rough-shod over local people.

Yet again the Conservatives are saying one thing and doing another while trying to deflect from their abysmal record on housebuilding after being in power for ten years.

Below is the text of the comments made by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, on 13 June 2020.

Three years on from the Grenfell tragedy, it is a national disgrace that so many people are still living in the shadow of deadly flammable cladding.

Ministers have missed their own deadline for cladding removal and must now take the enforcement action they promised to make buildings safe.

Grenfell-style cladding is just the tip of an iceberg. At the current pace it could take decades to end the cladding scandal. This vital work must speed up. It is a matter of life and death.