Real Regeneration, Yes

Jeremy Corbyn delivered a superb speech overall, but this is the passage that means that he deserves to be Prime Minister:

We have a duty as a country to learn the lessons from this calamity [Grenfell Tower] and ensure that a changed world flowers. I hope that the public inquiry will assist. But a decent home is a right for everyone whatever their income or background. And houses should be homes for the many not speculative investments for a few.

Look at the Conservative housing record and you understand why Grenfell residents are sceptical about their Conservative council and this Conservative government. Since 2010: homelessness has doubled, 120,000 children don’t have a home to call their own, home ownership has fallen, thousands are living in homes unfit for human habitation.

This is why alongside our Shadow Housing minister John Healey we’re launching a review of social housing policy - its building, planning, regulation and management. We will listen to tenants across the country and propose a radical programme of action to next year’s conference. But some things are already clear tenants are not being listened to. 

We will insist that every home is fit for human habitation, a proposal this Tory government voted down. And we will control rents - when the younger generation’s housing costs are three times more than those of their grandparents, that is not sustainable.

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. We also need to tax undeveloped land held by developers and have the power to compulsorily purchase. As Ed Miliband said, “Use it or lose it”. Families need homes.

After Grenfell we must think again about what are called regeneration schemes. Regeneration is a much abused word. Too often what it really means is forced gentrification and social cleansing, as private developers move in and tenants and leaseholders are moved out. We are very clear: we will stop the cuts to social security. But we need to go further, as conference decided yesterday. 

So when councils come forward with proposals for regeneration, we will put down two markers based on one simple principle: Regeneration under a Labour government will be for the benefit of the local people, not private developers, not property speculators.

First, people who live on an estate that’s redeveloped must get a home on the same site and the same terms as before. No social cleansing, no jacking up rents, no exorbitant ground rents. And second, councils will have to win a ballot of existing tenants and leaseholders before any redevelopment scheme can take place.

Real regeneration, yes, but for the many not the few.

This is bigger than Brexit. This is bigger than anything else. Theresa May needs to match it next week. But she will not do so. She simply is not equipped to be Prime Minister.