At a meeting of delegates to South Thanet Labour Party on Friday 26 July, we passed a motion by Labour Campaign for Council Housing, strengthening our position on building homes for the future. This is the only way to solve the housing crisis, and we are pleased that this will be discussed at our annual conference in Brighton in September

Conference notes that:  

• Shelter’s ‘A Vision for Social Housing’ report concludes that 3.1 million new social rented homes need to be built over the next 20 years – an average of 155,000 per year.
• Under the last Labour Government’s ‘National Affordable Homes Programme’ the grant available for councils to deliver new council housing was set at around £60,000 per home. Considering inflation since then, at least £100,000 per home will be needed for councils to deliver social rented housing.
• Under the policy of Right-to-Buy, over 1.8 million council properties in England have been sold to date. These homes have never been replaced one-for-one.
• Jeremy Corbyn committed to building 100,000 council homes a year during his 2016 leadership campaign.

Conference therefore calls upon the Labour Party to:

• Adopt a policy of building 155,000 social rented homes a year, with at least 100,000 of these social rented council homes, to start with immediate effect when in Government.
• Pledge at least £10 billion a year for housing grant, ringfenced for delivering 100,000 social rented council homes, to be announced at the first Budget of a Labour Government.
• Adopt a policy of ending, not suspending, Right-to-Buy to be announced on day one of a Labour Government.

Conference also calls upon the Party to provide a clear commitment that housing proposals passed as policy at our Annual Conference since 2017 will form a part of the radical housing policy included in our next manifesto.

If this resolution is passed, we ask the CLP to submit this motion to the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, NPF, NEC, Leader, Shadow Chancellor, the CLP’s Labour MP and LCF where applicable, and to support the Labour Campaign for Council Housing.