Our Broken Housing System
Helena Dollimore, MP for Hastings, Rye and the Villages
Everyone deserves a safe and secure place to call home. But for too many people in our town, this is not the case.
Hastings has the highest rate of children growing up homeless of anywhere in England outside London, with the equivalent of one child in every classroom living in temporary accommodation. This is nothing short of a disgrace.
I am angry every time I think about how our broken housing system has failed all these children and everyone else in our town who finds themselves homeless or sleeping rough.
When I was elected as our MP, tackling our local housing crisis was one of my top priorities. The previous government relied on sticking plaster measures, while the situation continued to spiral. We are now facing the worst housing crisis in living memory, and urgent drastic action is needed.
As an immediate first step, the Labour Government pledged millions to break the cycle of homelessness in Hastings. This money will directly fund critical services to prevent homelessness and support people into secure, stable housing–helping those at risk of homelessness to pay deposits and negotiate with landlords. This means that we will now be better equipped to step in early to stop households becoming homeless in the first place.
A key part of this picture is the new Renters’ Rights Bill. Across the country, no-fault evictions are one of the leading causes of homelessness. This legislation will finally ban this cruel practice that allows families to be uprooted from their home with little notice and minimal justification. The Bill will also make sure that landlords act on issues like damp and mould within a specified timeframe and ban them from discriminating against tenants with children or pets. I was proud to vote for this landmark piece of legislation which will affirm rights for thousands of renters in Hastings and help tackle our local housing crisis.
In the long run, we need to tackle the problem at its root and build the additional homes we desperately need. With record levels of homelessness, there’s no shying away from the housing crisis we have inherited. Over the past decade, the rate of house building in this country plummeted, as house prices continued to rise.
This Labour Government is reversing that trend.
We have begun to reform our broken planning system to deliver the biggest expansion of affordable and social housing in a generation. Our town is full of brownfield sites that could easily be turned into homes for local people. It is essential that we get these homes built, to make sure that everyone has a secure place to live, and we can bring down the long waitlists for social housing which leave families in limbo for years on end.
The Labour Government is reforming the planning system so that we can get spades in the ground, instead of delaying decisions and wasting the time of councillors and applicants which only delay good outcomes for our community. It is vital that the voice listened to in planning meetings is not that of the blockers, but that of the hundreds of homeless children in our town who need a safe and secure place to live. Our responsibility should always be to them.
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