The housing waiting lists in Newham can’t be ignored

Waiting lists are longer than ever and that’s not a mistake: it happened because time and again Conservative Governments undermined the very premise of social housing, with homes sold and never replaced, all while waiting lists have soared.

Under the last Government, here in London we saw the concerns and preferences of homeowners prioritised over the 90,000 children in our capital city growing up in temporary accommodation, without somewhere stable and secure to call home.

That is the challenge that this Labour Government inherited: house building stagnated and the entire social housing sector crippled. I hear the human cost of this failure in every single one of my MP surgeries.

It’s a problem that can only be fixed with a serious plan.

MP Uma Kumaran backs the Government's plan to tackle the social housing crisis (Image: Wikimedia)

That’s why I am backing this Government’s strategy to build 300,000 social and affordable homes. It’s being backed by £39 billion of funding – £11.7 billion of this has been earmarked for London – and low-cost loans to support housebuilding, as well as £5 billion to build the infrastructure needed to support new homes.

Labour’s plan is already changing the tide.

Last year, councils across Britain completed more social homes than at any point since records began over 30 years ago. Newham is playing its part too and is on track to have delivered nearly 1,000 new council homes by next year – including family and wheelchair accessible homes.

Not so in every local authority: in Bristol, the Greens proposed selling off their social housing stock and backed out of delivering council homes the previous Labour city council had committed to.

And what about Reform? As yet, they have no housing plan to speak of, since their housing spokesperson was sacked for his appalling comments about Grenfell.

Building housing – and investing in quality social housing - isn’t just a slogan, it’s a political choice that this Government is backing with generational funding.

I will always fight for the homes that people in Newham need – and back this investment in social housing because I know that it will deliver real hope for so many people in our borough.

Yet for every new home, there are dozens more families who also need the safety, security and opportunity of a social or affordable home, somewhere where they can put down real roots. That’s why we must hit the accelerator.

• Uma Kumaran is Labour MP for Stratford and Bow.