- The price of housing is far too expensive for young people to buy locally. The Help to Buy scheme merely increase house prices. The Conservatives are not building enough new homes to bring house prices down.
➡️ Labour will build sufficient housing to bring the house prices down - Private tenants are at risk of losing their homes. Despite Tory manifesto promises to end no fault evictions, no such legislation has been passed by Parliament.
➡️ Labour will end no fault evictions for private tenants and limit rent increases - Flat owners face legal difficulties with the English feudal leasehold system. The Conservatives have been far too slow in reforming this area. The residents in the flats near Lower Sydenham train station were unable to form a right to manage company despite a large amount of interest.
➡️ Labour will make it easier to set up right to manage companies for leaseholders and introduce the commonhold system for leasehold housing - The Government has given freeholders the legal power to build up to two extra stories on flats without any requirement to obtain planning permission. This shows no respect for residents in the blocks concerned.
➡️ Labour would repeal this legislation - The draft Building Safety Bill correctly addresses some of the problems after the Grenfell fire tragedy. However, clauses 88 and 89 in the bill unfairly makes leaseholders liable to pay for historic fire safety costs within 28 days. For more details see here
➡️ Labour does not believe that leaseholders should pay for fire safety costs - There are long standing empty properties in Copers Cope Road, Beckenham Place Park and Southend Road. The council is too slow in taking any effective enforcement action. This is a waste of resources and is not climate friendly. See here.
➡️ Labour believes that local authorities should be required to take legal action to bring back long standing empty properties into residential use - Meanwhile Bromley Council has a record number of families in temporary accommodation and rehouses homeless families as far away as Canterbury. 40 years after selling off their local authority housing stock, Bromley Council has now accepted Labour’s argument that building council homes is better value than expensive temporary accommodation.
➡️ Labour will build more council houses in Bromley to help all those in housing need and to reduce the cost of temporary accommodation - Housing association tenants in Calverley Close are worried that their landlord is proposing to rehouse them outside the area and the development plan for their estate proposes a dramatic reduction in the number of homes available at social rent levels. The Government has failed to enact their plans to give Housing Association tenants more legal rights.
➡️ Labour would legislate to give housing association tenants more legal rights
Anybody who has a housing problem should contact Beckenham Labour. We will try to help as best we can.
