Ruth Kelly on Social Housing

I saw Ruth Kelly speak on housing policy at the Fabians today.

Some good thinking - as well as proposing getting people on the home ownership ladder with the option of owning 10% of their council or housing association home (and reinvesting the proceeds in new stock) - because research shows more than 50% of tenants aspire to own their home but most can't afford full ownership or current shared-ownership schemes - she said in answer to questions “yes we need to build more social homes … more council homes, more housing association homes.” She suggested there was funding to come for building social housing in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.

I hope this happens sooner rather than later - there is a huge shortage of social (and intermediate affordable) housing across inner London and most of my caseload as a ward councillor is overcrowded families in small flats who desperately need a new larger home.

For the commenters on previous posts claiming not to be able to tell the difference between Labour and the Tories, do they think Tory shadow ministers care about social housing tenants or would be in favour of building more social housing? I have personal experience of Tory politicians saying they don't want social housing included in new developments because they "don't want more of those kind of people in their constituency". Would the Tories have invested billions in the Decent Homes programme like we have so that every council tenant will get a minimum standard of warmth and weatherproofing and a modern kitchen and bathroom? I doubt it.