Scrapping the borrowing cap is the first really big win for housing campaigners in a long time. But to turn it into the mass council housebuilding programme needed to actually solve the crisis, we need to push on more key demands. 1/
First, ending the right to buy - if the government's figures are right, then even with the removed cap, right to buy means we will still have a net loss of c. 2k council homes every year. Scrapping the cap won't even help us hang on to what we have got.
Second, big increase in central government funding (grant) for specifically social rented homes. Social housing pays for itself in the medium term, through rents and reduced housing benefit. But for large scale social rented housebuilding programme needs upfront capital now.
Finally - land. As @sara_izzM and I @NEF have shown, unaffordable land is one of the biggest barriers to building social rented housing. But there are solutions... neweconomics.org/2018/07/what-l…
As @danielbentley and others including @nef argue this must involve allowing councils to pruchase land at a price closer to the price for its current use (eg as a factory or a field), backed by compulsory purchase. This has worked historically and will work now.
But there is an even quicker win: public land. At the moment it is being sold off at an alarming rate, and as @wheatleyhanna and others @NEF have shown is only producing 10% social rented housing. Selling public land to the highest bidder is making the housing crisis worse.
The Govt has plans to sell enough land for over 250k homes in just this parliament. If instead that was used for public good, we could start solving the housing crisis. Join @NEF 's campaign to #savepublicland neweconomics.org/campaigns/save…
