Lucy Powell, Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, has said in her Labour Party Speech, that she sees housing as a public health issue.

She specifically picked out:

• issues of quality
• affordability
• security in private rentals
• and ending rough sleeping, and No-Fault Evictions.

Powell also claims that they will ‘will give local authorities new powers to buy and develop land for housing, and revitalise town centres, by reforming arcane compensation rules. This could generate up to 100,000 new homes a year, much of which social and affordable.’  This is on the day that the Government have scrapped plans for planning reforms

She also says, that to fix the cladding issue, ‘Labour would create a Building Works Agency to assess, fix and fund and then certify all tall buildings. Then pursue those responsible for costs and put in law that leaseholders won’t pay.

They will give first-time buyers ‘first dibs’ on new developments, and put an end to the practice of foreign hedge funds purchasing swathes of new homes, off-plan.’

The definition of affordable homes would be linked to local wages, rather than housing costs.

The whole speech can be seen here.

Before the conference commenced, Powell had also claims ‘ “Labour is the party of homeownership, the Tories are the party of speculators and developers. They treat housing as a commodity, not the bedrock of stable lives and life chances.”