'Growing up in a council house gave me best start... more kids deserve the same'
Unlike most Government ministers or MPs, I grew up in a council home.
The fact that it was rented from the local authority didn’t matter. It was home. It gave our family stability, freedom from an unaffordable private housing market.
My parents didn’t have to worry about a landlord making us homeless at a whim or hiking up our rent, which meant they could put money aside to buy their own home.
It was the foundation on which I was able to build my own life, get an education, get a job – and eventually become a homeowner myself.
It’s a truth the Government simply don’t get: council housing isn’t the enemy of aspiration, it’s the home of it.
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That opportunity is being denied to millions of people across the country because of a lack of political ambition. Too often we’re told there’s no alternative to a predatory private rental market for those who can’t afford eye-watering house prices.
London is building twice as many council homes as the rest of England (PA)In London, we’re showing how things can be done differently.
In 2018, I committed to getting work started on 10,000 council homes. In 2022, we exceeded that ambition, and so I doubled the target to 20,000 homes by 2024.
Cynics said it couldn’t be done, but today I’m proud to say that thanks to the hard work of councils right across the capital it’s been achieved a year early, with more than 23,000 council homes now started across our city.
This marks an extraordinary council housing comeback since I became Mayor. Council homebuilding has increased more than tenfold since the end of my predecessor’s term as Mayor, and is now at the highest level since the 1970s.
The 10,000 council homes started in London last year alone is more than double what the rest of England achieved in the previous year.
It's not just about quantity, but quality too. Our approach is ensuring that this new generation of council homes are the best ever built, making them beautiful, spacious places to live, and helping to cut energy bills too.
As the great post-war health and housing minister, Nye Bevan said, "While we shall be judged for a year or two by the number of houses we build, we shall be judged in ten years by the type of houses we build."
London’s housing crisis was decades in the making and turning it round won’t be easy, but the record breaking council house building in London over her last 5 years is a huge step in the right direction. If our level of ambition was applied nationally, it would be transformative for our country.
In fact, if the rest of England was building at the same rate per head of population as London achieved last year, it would mean 65,000 new council homes nationwide.
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In one year, that would mean starting work on enough council homes to house every homeless family with children currently stuck in temporary accommodation across the country. It’s the step-change in ambition that the country’s housing crisis demands.
For every housing statistic there’s a story attached. Today I met a mum who previously lived in a cramped and overcrowded two-bedroom property for nearly 14 years with five other family members.
She and her family now have a brand new four-bed council house in Brent, complete with their own garden.
This is the difference new council homes can make. The job is far from done, and millions are still struggling in the grip of soaring housing costs.
But London’s council housing resurgence is a lesson for Rishi Sunak – building new council homes at scale not only should be done, it can be done, and it’s the best way to support aspiration right across the country.
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