October 2021

Members of Tonbridge and Malling Labour Party have over the summer and early autumn been working with others from neighbouring constituencies, campaigns such as the Labour Campaign for Council Housing and independent socialists to put the case for a more rational approach to housing. Our Housing Campaign West Kent has won significant interest in the area and beyond. In the first few weeks we handed out information to resist eviction (this followed the end of the eviction ban) but later concentrated on surveying people and thinking of solutions. Local Labour Party councillors and a leading Liberal Democrat activist have already given us our support and in the next phase of the campaign we will be writing to all parish and borough councillors – of all parties and none – to see where they stand. More details will follow.

Firstly though what do the people living around here believe? We ran stalls with three questions as follows. The questions and answers so far are:

Do you worry about affording your rent/mortgage?
Yes – 249
No – 88
Both – 2

Should people get the right home because:
They need it? – 351
They can afford it? – 9
Both – 21

Should the housing crisis be solved by building more:
Council homes? – 338
Private homes? – 32
Both – 42

Quite a number of people (generally older) said that they had themselves paid off their mortgage but worried that their younger relatives in particular would never be able to obtain adequate housing, as buying is out of the question for those on local salaries and the only alternative for many is the private rented sector. Most surprising was the extremely strong support for council housing as the only way out of the current crisis. There was a huge amount of anger at the market-driven approach which enriches a small number of people at huge cost to wider society.
We are in the process of finalising a housing manifesto for the area and will make this available shortly. This will call for our Local Authority to become a registered social landlord and build a new generation of council homes, look at the economics of this, put the case for a much more tightly regulated private rented sector and demand that housing becomes a key part of the move to net zero carbon, for example by not building new housing estates in areas which lock in car dependency.

In both the public and the private sector, the answer may well be before the Tories took power in 2010. Many public sector workers have suffered pay cuts, once inflation is taken into account, of more than 10%.

This hasn’t been due to a ‘lack of money’. The super-rich have often upgraded their superyachts and private jets in that time, while the Government has been perfectly happy to see billions of pounds exported to tax havens and therefore not take the tax that would otherwise be due.

When Rishi Sunak gets up tomorrow remember that it is unlikely that this fall in income will be made up. Remember also that some economists are now predicting that inflation will reach 5% a year and that many incomes have already been reduced by £1,000 in the next year by the cut to universal credit. Neither should you forget that housing costs are rising inexorably, with house prices up 10% in twelve months.

Join a trade union and collectively demand a real pay rise. And vote Labour to get those who have shown contempt for ordinary voters while enriching their friends and relatives out.