Fighting for Affordable Housing in Brighton and Hove

Amidst all the news about rising house prices, I wrote last week to the Minister about new information showing that the cost of buying a home in Brighton and Hove is going up faster than in London.

In the last quarter house prices in Brighton and Hove increased by 5.1%, compared to 4.7% in the capital.  Home ownership is currently a pipe dream for many, and with more people unable to buy, rising demand has meant renting is also increasingly unaffordable.

At the root of the problem is a chronic lack of supply and underinvestment by successive governments, exacerbated by the privatisation of council housing stock and an obsession with expensive Private Finance deals. I understand that the Help to Buy scheme must seem like a welcome relief for some wanting to get on the housing ladder, but it’s available to people buying a home worth up to £600,000 so not targeted at those most in need. It’s also pushing prices up even further. Faced with a choice between lending people vast sums of money to buy exorbitantly priced housing or saddling people with less debt  by making home ownership more affordable, I’d opt every time for the latter.

Greens locally have taken concrete steps to increase housing supply, all the while expected to do more and more with less and less funding from central Government. Tackling rising house prices requires a massive programme of direct capital investment to build sustainable council housing. And the unfair constraints on borrowing faced by local authorities should be lifted so that councils can better meet demand for new homes. This would help ease pressure on the private market, and in turn on rent levels and housing prices.

Access to affordable housing is a key challenge for our city and we need a long term solution. Hard pressed families and young people in particular in my constituency cannot afford another costly housing bubble, on which their dreams of a reasonably priced home will just float away.  So as the Chancellor’s autumn statement approaches, I’ll be fighting on my constituents’ behalf for a budget that delivers on affordable housing, not one that drives house prices up even further.