Last week I was immensely proud to be part of a Labour cabinet in Southwark which made the commitment to build 10,000 new council homes – a new council home every day for the next 10,000 days. It was a commitment which has been developed over two years, following the report of our Independent Housing Commission, widespread ‘community conversations’ with our residents, and detailed financial modelling. And it is the biggest commitment of its kind that any local authority in Britain has made.

In many ways modern Southwark has been defined by its social housing. From the pioneering slum clearance and housebuilding of the Bermondsey borough council in the 1920s and 1930s inspired by Alfred and Ada Salter, to the postwar construction of the architecturally brutalist estates such as the Heygate and Aylesbury, the provision of good quality homes for Londoners has been a key aspiration of councils in Southwark.

Our pledge to build 10,000 new council homes comes on top of our programme announced last year to build another 1,000 new council homes by 2020. Just to put those two figures into context – 1,000 council homes are more than were delivered across the whole of London in the past decade; and 10,000 council homes are more than three times the number built right across the country during the 13 years of the last Labour government.

There has never been a more vital time for councils to commit to building new homes. With house prices continuing to rise, private sector rents increasing at two or three times the rate of inflation, and the government’s ‘affordable’ rent model proving to be anything but affordable for many people, council homes at target rent levels are increasingly becoming the housing of choice for many low-paid workers. And having listened to the views of thousands of Southwark’s residents over the past six months I know that – whatever their background – they have been looking to the council to help provide an answer to the current housing crisis.

It is the role of progressive Labour councils to build new homes for local residents. Being a progressive politician of the left means looking to find pragmatic solutions to the problems we face. The commitment we have made will not be easy to deliver, but often the best and most worthwhile things we do in politics require sustained hard work and a willingness to make the case time and again. We will need to substantially increase the density of some existing housing estates – but with a policy that at least 50 per cent of all new homes will be let to residents on those estates I hope that we will continue to win local cooperation and support.

Building 10,000 new council homes will take huge resources. But we are confident that with a combination of borrowing against our housing revenue account, and other more innovative forms of financing, such as through bond issues and financing secured against the council’s general fund, those resources can be found.

Our commitment goes alongside work which we are doing to improve the management of our existing stock, looking to residents to make more decisions about how their homes and environments are maintained.

My own vision for housing in Southwark in 25 years’ time is of a place where you will not know whether you are visiting an estate in private or council ownership; where the quality of our council homes rivals or exceeds those produced for private sale; and where those properties are managed and maintained either by their residents, or the council, or by a combination of both – but always with the agreement and support of their residents.

Ten thousand new council homes in Southwark will not solve all of London’s housing problems – they will not even solve Southwark’s housing shortage. But they will help many working families who simply cannot afford to rent in the private sector or buy in London’s inflationary housing market. It is a commitment which I urge other progressive Labour councils to follow.

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Peter John is the leader of Southwark council. He tweets @PeterJohn6

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Photo: Peter Gasston