Acute shortage of housing

One reason the Government is limiting the number of refugees we will accept is an acute shortage of homes in the UK.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) says we need another million homes and not enough are being built.

Successive Governments have failed to act and the excess of demand over supply has pushed up house prices and made home-ownership beyond the means of young couples, especially in London which has the biggest problem.

Government inaction is only one of the causes.

Shelter cites a shortage of land as another and Greenfield sites are protected but it is suggested that there are enough brownfield sites to accommodate 1.8 million new homes.

The slowness of the planning process is another factor, changes in 2012 saw the number of applications approved annually increase from 158,000 to 240,000.

Developers are also blamed for sitting on land for which planning has been approved to maximise their profits as house prices rise and for the same reason developers sometimes build expensive properties rather than affordable homes first time buyers can afford.

The increasing house prices have forced many to rent rather than buy and in some instances to have to cope with private landlords who do not always offer secure long term tenancies.

This can mean families with young children forced to move every six months with all the emotional harm that causes, especially to their children.

Also, there is estimated 635,000 empty properties in England alone. 

This is a complete and utter waste of housing when there are so many homeless families looking for somewhere to live and a large number of these (200,000) have been left empty for over six months.

The Coalition Government introduced a ‘Help to Buy’ scheme to help first time buyers but more was needed to increase the supply of homes for purchase.

The present Government aims to transform ‘generation rent into generation buy’ and set a target of one million new homes by 2020.

Its Housing and Planning Bill currently before Parliament is intended to make this target attainable.

It will give local authorities powers to apply banning orders against rogue landlords and establish a proper process by which landlords can repossess properties abandoned by bad tenants.

Controversially, the Bill also establishes a Right to Buy for housing association tenants.

The housing budget has been doubled to £8 billion and £140 million has been set aside to transform the worst 100 sink estates.

The Opposition questions whether this means established communities will be broken up and whether those who have bought their homes in these estates will be guaranteed homes in the rebuilt estates.

The Prime Minister wants to offer people on sink estates something better and accuses Labour of trying to prevent this. 

The key issue will be the cost of the new homes and whether the poorest will be able to afford them.

The Government certainly wants to charge tenants paid more than £30,000 p.a. and still living in Council houses, to pay higher rents than those on the national living wage.

Their critics are concerned that Government policies will shrink the rented sector and make it difficult for people on low incomes to live.

A home is crucial for settled family life and policies that affect the availability, cost, location and quality of appropriate houses are important issues.

Nobody wants people to become homeless, families to be broken up or to live in squalor but some have to and that is a moral as well as a political issue that challenges how seriously we ‘love our neighbours’ as Jesus expects.

Some curious developments at the beginning of a new year in both the Government and Opposition recently.

The most curious was Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to reshuffle his front bench, where he took three days to sack two Shadow Ministers – Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden.

This had nothing to do with their competence and everything to do with their disagreements with him, which were deemed to be evidence of disloyalty.

Three other less senior members of the Shadow team resigned in response, one member of the Shadow team, Stephen Doughty resigned publicly on the BBC, well done to the BBC for their impartiality, independence and excellent journalism.

Clearly, the Labour Party and those who criticise the BBC have once again and continue to keep showing that they do not understand the meaning of impartiality and independence.

Maria Eagle, the Shadow Defence Secretary, was moved to the Culture, Media and Sport brief and replaced by Emily Thornberry, who shares Corbyn’s views on defence.

Underlying these changes were differences of opinion about Trident and the decision to authorise air-strikes against Daesh in Syria.

Current Labour Party policy, published in the election manifesto, supports replacing Trident but Corbyn wants to scrap it altogether and he has said that if he were Prime Minister he would never use nuclear weapons so there is no point in having them.

That is a principled position but if he wants party policy to be changed he should initiate an open debate with the many Labour MPs who disagree.

In his party conference speech Mr Corbyn said his election as leader was ‘a vote for change in the way we do politics’ and he wanted ‘politics that’s kinder, more inclusive’ and he hoped for ‘real debate, not necessarily message discipline all the time – but above all, straight talking’.

He was right, which makes sacking those who disagree with him on specific issues totally inconsistent.

Some commentators are suggesting that Corbyn is more interested in the party’s grassroots which is the powerbase that voted him into leadership, not the Parliamentary party many of whom did not vote for him.

It is alleged that he wants to shift the primary responsibility for policy making away from MPs to the party’s National Executive Council (NEC), where he has stronger support.

The big problem with this is that MPs are democratically elected by their constituencies whilst the NEC is not and it doesn't matter whilst the party is in Opposition, but it would if it ever could win office again.

The other curiosity was David Cameron’s announcement that Ministers could campaign for Britain leaving the EU without resigning from the Government.

This breaches the long established convention of collective responsibility which requires Ministers to resign if they disagree with Government policy.

Some reports suggest that Cameron was forced into this announcement but Downing Street denies this.

It is no secret that a significant number of Conservative MPs and a handful of Ministers want us to quit the EU, but their election manifesto promised renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership and a referendum before the end of 2017.

If they now back leaving regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, should they not have the courage of their convictions and resign before campaigning against Government policy.

Cynicism about politicians is widespread and these developments do nothing to change that.

A stronger culture of servant hood by those who govern us, would help to breathe new life into British democracy and encourage more of us to take our civic duties seriously.