The new shadow housing minister says Labour will build 100,000 new council houses and housing association homes a year with more affordable housing expected from private developers who win consent for market-value schemes.
John Healey says the building of 500,000 homes by 2020 would cost £13.5 billion but this would be handsomely exceeded by over £19 billion saved through reduced housing benefit costs.
Private developers would be obliged to build another 16,000 homes a year and councils would be allowed to have increased borrowing against their assets to permit more house building.
“The country is going backwards: home ownership has fallen every year since 2010, homelessness is rising, rents are up, 63,000 social rented homes have been lost in the last five years and only 144,500 new homes were built in England, half the number we need” says Healey.
Healey was housing minister during the last Labour government and says his main priority under Jeremy Corbyn's party leadership is home ownership “because we have to recognise that is the type of housing most people most want”.
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