Housing: Motion to 2021 AGM

Motion 4. Housing

Proposed by Hann Sutcliffe, seconded by Janine Booth

Neurodivergent Labour notes that:

1. the United Kingdom faces an increasing rate of housing crisis and homelessness, which has been made worse by the Covid 19 pandemic

2. various research shows that autistic, dyslexic and other neurodivergent people are disproportionately likely to be homeless

3. while the ban on evictions prevented a short-term rise in homelessness, 70,000 families lost their homes after it ended

4. the rise in corporate landlords and mega landlords buying up property that was once council or affordable has contributed to the housing shortage

5. the average wait time for a council property is between 5 to 45 months, forcing most individuals and families to rent.

6. due to the government using private contracts for housing, most houses are beyond the reach of the average person as a result of the for-profit model.

Neurodivergent Labour believes that

1. the root of the housing crisis is the fact that landlordism has become an epidemic, eating up houses in low income areas for either speculation or renovation purposes which result in rising prices and gentrification.

2. neurodivergent people, who are at a higher risk of being benefit dependent and often require housing with accessibility features, are forced to either live in housing that is so poorly maintained that it becomes a health risk or are forced to forfeit the majority of the support money which has resulted in suicides.

3. while small-time landlords are not the root cause, it should not be acceptable in a society that has a shortage of comfortable housing, that a person can own multiple properties at once and exploit that need for housing for profit.

4. corporate landlords are one of the main sources of corruption within the current Parliament, for example preventing the Fit for Habitation Act 2018.

5. if the UK wants to end homelessness, it should expropriate the excess housing. This would dramatically increase the amount of social housing available to councils; place a solid obstacle in the way of gentrification; prevent landlords from taking advantage of vulnerable people; and allow old houses to be used in place of creating new ones that are often of poor quality and environmentally damaging.

Neurodivergent Labour calls upon the Labour party to:

1. set a high legal living standard for rented accommodation that councils and private landlords are responsible for keeping

2. drastically expand expropriation powers to Councils, allowing for private property to be taken into ownership by local council housing for housing purposes, in such a way that housing is not sold off by the council itself to other private landlords

3. compel landlords to improve standards or face expropriation of their property

4. enable expropriation of rented accommodation that is kept empty without due reason for six months

5. ban the practice of refusing tenancy to people simply because they are on benefits

6. assess council houses for disability access and ensure that tenants’ access needs are met excess charges. eg, stair lifts, panic buttons

7. legislate for a legal limit on the amount of houses a person may legally own

8. ban private and international corporations owning residential properties

9. expropriate empty buildings that have been foreclosed/abandoned/owned but not occupied, and renovate them into habitable accommodation

10. restore and increase local government funding

Image by Ricarda Mölck from Pixabay