EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: Under the Tories, owning your own home has become an impossible dream

After 13 years in power, the Tories’ record now includes over 1 million on the waiting list for social homes and over 100,000 households stuck in limbo.

These figures include over 13,000 forced to live in B&Bs and over 5,000 in hostels – places where a routine is almost impossible to maintain, privacy is scarce and trying to provide a safe and nurturing space for children is beyond most families.

The people behind these figures are the casualties of the housing crisis, exacerbated by yet another broken Tory promise to build 300,000 homes per year. This promise has never been met in calendar year since it was made in the 2019 manifesto.

Without an increase in housing, existing buildings needing urgent repair, being bought up by property tycoons or being removed from the social housing stock by right-to-buy mean there are less houses to go around and both rents and house prices are causing widespread homelessness – even among working families.

South Tyneside has seen a rise in average private rent of an extra £1,308 per year. As these prices increase, more and more people are being forced into temporary solutions.

The Prime Minister once again showed how weak he was and how beholden he is to his most vocal backbenchers by recently scrapping local targets for housebuilding.

A Labour Government will ensure we take a different approach by reintroducing those targets, and will release poor-quality ex-industrial land and dilapidated, neglected scrubland to build more housing whilst respecting our green belt and protecting our countryside.

Labour will put social and genuinely affordable housing at the very heart of our plans to jump-start the housebuilding industry. Under the Tories not only has owning your own home become an impossible dream but for an increasing number of people and families simply having a roof over your head is too.