Britain: How do we make Corbyn's speech a reality?

Part 2 - Housing

We all know that Britain is in an acute housing crisis. This is one of the biggest problems facing the working class. Corbyn plans to address this by passing legislation ensuring that “every home is fit for human habitation”, something the Tories recently voted down. This is absolutely correct.

He then went further and announced that “we will control rents...Rent controls exist in many cities across the world and I want our cities to have those powers too and tenants to have those protections.” Well-applied rent control would be an enormous respite for millions of people for whom rent has become a crippling burden.

But we have already heard the counterattack of the apologists for capitalism. They claim this policy does more damage than good because it will discourage investment by property developers and landlords.

As outrageous a claim this is, it is also true - we can only expect the profit-driven housing sector to scale back badly needed house building and refurbishment, since capitalists make investments to get profits. Significant rent controls (and they must be significant to make a difference to workers) cut profits.

There is a danger that these two policies - making all housing fit for human habitation and rent controls - will, under ‘market forces’, cancel each other out. To get housing fit for human habitation, we need much more investment.

The Labour movement must anticipate huge obstacles being put up to this. Speculation on the housing market has become key to parasitic British capitalism. We can’t make these parasites invest in good housing even now, let alone if we then slap rent controls on.

To really make a success of this policy, it must be controlled by us from start to finish. We must nationalise the big construction firms and landlords and embark on a massive programme of high quality social housing!

The same applies to Corbyn’s excellent announcement regarding the regeneration of council estates. He wants to give existing tenants a deciding say of their regeneration and to guarantee them new homes in the same place after regeneration is complete.

But the reason this is not currently done is because the private developers demand profits, and social housing is not profitable for them. Therefore, we cannot expect them to comply. If we want regeneration along these lines, which we do, the process must be carried out by the public sector from start to finish.

Source:

https://www.marxist.com/britain-how-do-we-make-corbyn-s-speech-a-reality.htm

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