Of all the issues that lend themselves to impassioned political debate, the allocation of local housing ranks high. Like all such debates, there’s often more heat than light, although in this case it’s with both tabloid press and self-styled high-brow media alike.
That is why I welcome the EHRC’s report on immigration and social housing. In highlighting misplaced perceptions about new migrants, the findings give lie to the myth of council queue jumping. Under 2% of residents in such housing have moved to Britain in the past five years, while 90% were born here.
It is also a timely report, given what I announced recently on the back of Gordon Brown’s new Housing Pledge – to bring about a new system of allocation, based on more homes, fairer lettings and local need.
In proposing new rule changes, I will ensure that those with the greatest housing needs continue to get priority using what are known as ‘reasonable preference’ criteria.
Beyond this however, I want to move the debate on to ask questions about the particular pressures and needs in Wakefield, Westminster or West Somerset.
By doing so, I want councils to have more leeway to deal with housing in ways that better reflect the needs, demands and aspirations of their area. For some, this could allow them to deal with overcrowding. For others, it might mean attracting skilled workers. For others still, perhaps rural areas, it could help hold families together.
In parallel though, I want councils to have simpler, better publicised ways of talking to the public about housing allocation, including leading debates that help further nail the myths the EHRC have identified. The lack of understanding about how and why decisions are made has often been the handmaiden of misinformation.
What my proposed rule changes are not about is race card or dog whistle politics. Those quick to suggest it is might want to ask whether unfairness in allocation is something felt by non-white Britons.
Of course it is.
From where I stand, being ‘local’ or having concerns about housing allocation applies just as equally to those in our country from second, third or fourth generation Bangladeshi, Kashmiri, Caribbean families.
In fact, it is the Tories who sound the dog whistle when they accuse our housing policies of “aggravating community tensions”.
Not that they have any solutions of their own. Broadly silent on reforming the system, they at the same time are leaving people to wonder what their proposed scything of public service budgets would mean for house building. I’ll tell you what it means.
It means funding for housing would be down £800m this year, with 9,000 fewer homes built that people can afford to rent, and more of the same in the years ahead.
With a Housing Pledge that is high among Labour’s priorities and compelling evidence from the EHRC supporting what we have long known from our people on the ground, the opportunity now rests with us to both deliver homes for those most in need and remove the poison from the politics.