Housing 'crisis' to divide London, warns MP

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities

London risks becoming a "divided city" with the poorest priced out of living in the capital, a Labour MP warned today.

Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) said many in London were paying "extraordinarily high rents", with some forking out up to 70% of their take home pay in housing costs.

Those doing essential jobs were often forced to live outside the capital and commute in because they could not afford to buy.

The mayor of London Boris Johnson, local councils and the Government had to deal with the problem otherwise London "would move in to decline, in to greater division in the future".

Councils should also be given more support to help families adjust to the housing benefit changes when they come in, Mr Corbyn told the Commons.

He added: "Talking to friends and colleagues about this, (London) seems to be one of the expensive places in the world to live in comparison to the income levels.

"And if we don't address this issue, we don't address the whole problems about the cost of housing as well as the supply of housing, then London is going to become a very divided city where those people that do all the vital jobs in the ambulance service, in the hospitals, post office, gas, electricity.... all those very essential works and professions, simply won't be able to live in London."

Mr Corbyn added: "I find it extraordinary the way in which the social changes in London are happening so fast.

"I met somebody who is a street sweeper in my borough who commutes in on a 45 minute train journey because he cannot afford to get anywhere near (London)."

Tory MP Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster) said many communities were often affected as young professionals would rent property for three to five years before moving on and buying their own place.

He said the capital's property market had "become ever more polarised", adding: "London is not just a capital city, it is a global city.

"That polarisation means, for want of a better phrase, the squeezed middle is an ever bigger group in London between those who can't even get on the ladder even if they are earning multiples of the average weekly wage, and those who are so impoverished that they can qualify for social housing."

Mr Field added: "This is part of the problem, that actually there are a lot of people who are working in our constituencies, who simply cannot afford to live anywhere near not even central London, but London as a whole, who have to commute large, long distances and take up a lot of time in order to commute, when they are earning multiples of the overall earning.

"They surely also have a housing need, and it is that housing need in the modern day that a lot of our social housing providers are trying to recognise, balancing their responsibilities to try and ensure that we have proper clear provision within central London."

Conservative MP Mary Macleod (Brentford and Isleworth) said there was a "desperate need" to increase the number of empty homes being brought back into use and the number of new homes being built.

Referring to the private rented sector she added: "We have been used to an Englishman's home is his castle approach to housing, but it's clear that we need to move more to a European model where long term renting is much more the norm."

Labour former minister Joan Ruddock (Lewisham Deptford) said: "It is my greatest fear that by the time I leave this House, we may have gone full circle and we might be back to the kind of housing conditions that I saw and experienced through my constituents when I came into this House in the 1980s.

"At that time, Londoners and visitors to London were so used to seeing those cardboard boxes under the arches of the South Bank.

"There is in my mind a terrible fear that all of the changes the Government is bringing in and has begun and the cuts and everything that goes with it, instead of getting people into work and making London a better and prosperous place where people are properly housed, that we could return to those terrible times."

Labour's John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) warned of a crisis on a scale not seen since Hitler's Luftwaffe devastated the capital.

He said: "In my constituency we are facing the worst housing crisis since the Second World War and actually maybe worse in terms of the demand that is taking place.

"To be frank, I can't cope much more with my constituency advice surgeries. I find them just so distressing ... I find it difficult to see how my staff are coping as well. We've even talked about whether we should be getting them counselling.

"I find it the most distressing experience of my life, in terms of the role that we play as local MPs. I can't cope any more with any more families coming in, with their children at their ankles, in tears, desperate for a roof over their heads.

"I just can't understand, in the sixth wealthiest country in the world, why we can't solve the problem."

He called for an emergency housing programme to build new homes and take over existing vacant properties.

But he warned that some developers were taking advantage of people's needs to build the "slums of the future".

Labour's Clive Efford (Eltham) underlined the need for low-cost rental properties.

He said: "Affordable rented accommodation is not just about people on benefits or people on low incomes, people who lack aspiration or people who are in a crisis in their lives, but it's absolutely essential to the future of the housing market, particularly in a place like London where deposits are going to be high.

"If we do not provide affordable housing at rates where people can reasonably be expected to save at a decent rate, who may aspire to become home-owners in the future, then we are actually undermining the future of our own housing market as well."

Labour former Cabinet minister Frank Dobson (Holborn and St Pancras) warned that housing-related problems had a considerable, but avoidable, impact on health, according to a study.

He said: "Research by the people in the School of Medicine at University College, in my constituency, suggests that - apart from smoking - overcrowding, homelessness, a poor standard of housing and insecurity in housing is the principle source of avoidable illness and premature death, and I think we need to bear that in mind when we are discussing anything to do with housing."

Mr Dobson said: "I know that the Deputy Prime Minister has said that he objects to the term 'social cleansing' in relation to driving up the rents and taking away the security of tenure.

"But as the inventor of the phrase, I make no apologies for it. That is what will happen - people will be driven out if their security of tenure is taken away and their rents are driven up and subsidies for those rents are taken away, they will be driven out."

Labour's Heidi Alexander (Lewisham E) urged the coalition to be honest about its intentions.

She said: "If the Government doesn't think families on low incomes should be able to live in London, they should come clean and say it, because this is what their proposals and policies are resulting in.

"I think we need to ensure those people who are driving the lorries that clear our roads, the people who clean our offices and work in our shops are able to live close to their place of work. It makes absolutely no sense for people having to rely on the transport system to come in.

"It's completely right that we have genuinely mixed communities being able to live in central London, and the proposals to change the welfare system and the housing benefits system run a real danger of making that not possible."

Labour's Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) labelled the last Government's record on housing "mixed".

He said: "For the record, I do think it was a mixed record, I do think Decent Homes was good. I'm not sure that the voice of London was heard strongly enough in those times, because Decent Homes took so much of a priority that housing supply, which is such a big issue for us here did not get a fair crack of the whip.

"Although, certainly during some of those years when I was running a local authority we tried by hook and by crook to build as many socially rented and intermediate homes as we possibly could and I think succeeded as best we could.

"It was still overall a failure of housing supply and I think that is to be regretted. I think the last Prime Minister got it, I think the Leader of the Opposition now certainly gets it. I think Prime Minister Blair did not get it in relation to the importance of housing, not just as a public service, but also as an important part of the economy in this country."

Shadow work and pensions minister Karen Buck said the Mayor had "talked the talk but is not walking the walk" and "will not deliver new social housing".

She added: "It will require the election of a Labour mayor and a Labour government to resolve the crisis of social housing in London."

Communities and Local Government Minister Bob Neill said: "At the end of the day... this Government is very strongly committed to housing in London.

"The current Mayor is very committed to housing in London - a 35% increase in the number of affordable starts since Mayor Johnson has been Mayor, the number of family-sized properties increased under Mayor Johnson by about 40% - so we don't think we have anything to be ashamed of in terms of our policy in London."

The debate ended without a vote.