KATE OSBORNE MP: Labour will fix the damage on our country and undo the 14 years of Conservative mess

More than a year ago, I wrote to Housing Secretary Michael Gove and both South Tyneside Council and Gateshead Council, about the issues with the housing stock in our constituency of Jarrow. The conditions in the private rented sector are appalling and desperately in need of regulation, councils do not have enough funding to enforce a decent homes standard and we have thousands of people stuck in temporary accommodation.

Unsurprisingly I received no response from the Government, who have consistently neglected housing and communities in the North East. Renters in my constituency and across the UK are still waiting for the Government to keep their promises on the long awaited Renters Reform Bill - promised by a Tory Government five years ago.

No real progress has been made and no fault evictions are soaring out of control – leading to a near 50% increase in Section 21 notices with no fault evictions leaving families distressed and facing homelessness. Renters can’t afford more dither and delay – they need security now. The first priority must be to give tenants the security of a roof over their heads while we get through this cost-of-living crisis.

This week the very same Michael Gove has tried to gaslight the country stating that “only Tories have a plan for housing” - when 14 years of Tory Governments has resulted in the worst housing crisis in decades and England ranking the lowest internationally in the developed world to find housing.

The Government's repeated failures have created yet another crisis in the housing sector, causing misery for millions of people as a result of the renters crisis, mortgage crisis, cost of living crisis and homelessness crisis – with a huge 1.2 million people on housing waiting lists.

The housing crisis has gotten so bad that house building in Britain has been at the lowest levels since the 1940s!

It is no wonder that housing is the issue that I am contacted about the most – amounting to over a third of all casework that my office handles. In fact the two main issues people contact my office about are anti-social behaviour and housing – and the two are linked – young people are living in cramped spaces, without a room of their own, living in houses in disrepair, local authority budgets have been slashed leading to the closure of youth services and police budget and staff cuts have meant there's even less frontline policing to deal with any issues.

We need to understand why anti-social behaviour is on the rise in order to tackle it – that’s not to excuse anyone’s behaviour – we absolutely need to deal with the crime and harassment, especially when businesses and people are being put through hell. I’ve spoken to business owners and shop workers in Jarrow, Hebburn, Wardley and Pelaw who are being ruined by anti-social behaviour with some reporting they’ve been forced to lock shop doors in order to keep offenders from stealing or abusing staff – this cannot continue.

Anti-social behaviour has been on the rise around the constituency, due to a 14-year decrease to police funding, Tories have slashed budgets leading to 10,000 fewer police on the beat since 2015, with Northumbria Police having 1,000 fewer police officers since 2010 – with £148million cut from budgets under successive Conservative Governments.

We have an opportunity this year when a general election is called to vote for change.

A Labour Government will restore neighbourhood policing, putting 13,000 more officers and PCSOs on our streets and introducing a new Community Policing Guarantee to make our communities safe again and to fight anti-social behaviour.

Labour will also bring about the biggest boost in affordable homes for a generation – with social and council housing at the core of Labour’s plan for secure homes. The Tories have failed to build enough affordable and social homes, meaning safe, secure, affordable housing is no longer the foundation on which people can rely.

With 100k people living in temporary accommodation the cost of temporary accommodation is in the billions - that money should be used to build social homes.

From housing to police to community facilities to transport, to the NHS, to social care – Labour will fix the damage the Conservatives have inflicted on our country and undo the 14 years of mess consecutive Conservative Governments have caused.