In years to come, this week could be seen as a turning point in the UK’s housing crisis. A big claim, I know. But bear with me while I explain. It is the laudable decision of Prince William to put his head above the parapet on an issue as difficult as homelessness, and embark on a five-year mission to end it, that could finally provide the housing game-changer this country needs.
It has the genuine potential to reframe and refresh the terms of a stale national debate. In my 20-plus years in frontline politics, the housing policies of all main parties have mainly revolved around promises to do three things: build more homes, promote home ownership and help first-time buyers.
But the housing crisis has only grown bigger every year in the four decades since the right-to-buy revolution set this limited agenda as the new Westminster orthodoxy.
I’ll be honest — it was only when I left the Commons in 2017, and began to look at housing policy from the grassroots up, that I finally appreciated the full human scale of the housing crisis.
Like Prince William, I had decided to make a big promise: to end rough sleeping in Greater Manchester. On my first day in office I set out on an early morning walkabout of Manchester city centre. And so began a journey of much deeper understanding.
Almost immediately, issues with zero visibility in Westminster, or decidedly off-limits, forced themselves to the top of my agenda: the damaging effects of right-to-buy; the failure to build social housing to replace homes lost; the poor standards in private-rented homes; the ease with which private landlords can evict people from them; and freezing the Local Housing Allowance (or housing benefit).
It is in Manchester and London where the complex interplay between these five issues has the most devastating impact.
I can remember Budget Days in the House of Commons when chancellors would stand up, promise to freeze housing benefit and bouquets would be thrown from the press gallery. What I didn’t see then, but know now, is alongside the back-slapping in Whitehall there would be simultaneous teeth-gnashing in town halls. That is where the desperate families unable to pay the rent, and evicted by their landlords, would soon be turning up.
In an era when social housing is scarce, it is vital that benefits keep pace with private rents. When that stops, we quickly fall into big trouble.
Since the last freeze in 2020, thousands of children have been made homeless. In Greater Manchester, the number of households in temporary accommodation stands today at 5,000; in London, it is a staggering 58,000. By my guess, this means at least 10,000 children in Greater Manchester, and around 100,000 in London, are living in extremely basic conditions; for instance, a single family room with a sink in a house with shared bathroom facilities. It goes without saying that this is a totally unsuitable environment for children and often many miles from where they go to school. Last week, I visited a secondary school in North Manchester which has set up its own housing project because it is so worried about the welfare of its students in temporary accommodation.
Freezing housing benefit has bigger consequences in London and Manchester because this is where rents are generally rising fastest. Back at the time of the freeze, 30 per cent of rented properties here were affordable to people in receipt of it. Now that figure stands at four per cent. In London, it has dropped from 14 per cent to five per cent. The small number of homes available are generally in a terrible state of repair.
Michael Gove is at least facing up to these issues. In March, we signed a new devolution deal with his department which gives us greater power over housing. We now intend to introduce a new Good Landlord Charter, a right for residents to request property checks and tougher conditionality on landlords in receipt of public money through the benefits system. London should be given exactly the same power to act. But the bigger answer for us both is a halt to right-to-buy and the ability to build the many more council and social homes we both need.
For too long, Britain has been looking at its housing crisis through the wrong end of the telescope. The intervention by the Prince of Wales may just be the thing which turns the telescope around.
