Key points
Brexit did not get a look-in during a prime minister’s questions focused on housing. Jeremy Corbyn used his six questions to press Theresa May on the Conservatives’ record on housing and homelessness in a more subdued PMQs than in previous weeks.
The Labour leader joined May in marking six months since the Grenfell Tower fire took the lives of 71 people. He said the blaze in June this year symbolised the neglect of working-class communities. As many of the survivors still wait to be permanently rehoused, Corbyn said homelessness had gone up every year since 2010. He asked May whether this would change in 2018.
The prime minister replied that the government was spending £500m to cut homelessness and implementing projects to deal with rough sleeping. She said the government wanted to help people get into their own homes and ensure they kept them. She pointed to the last Labour government, saying the number of homes built went down and social housing was reduced by 400,000.
Corbyn replied that the last Labour government cut homelessness by two thirds and that the number of children in temporary accommodation was a lot less than now. Corbyn said one in 100 children were homeless this Christmas, adding: “It’s a national disgrace and it’s getting worse.”
He said it was too late for this Christmas, but asked whether May could promise more children would have a home by next Christmas.
May said she wanted children to wake up in a home of their own – and pointed to rules allowing councils to place families in private accommodation. She said B&B accommodation was only for emergencies. She said her government would prioritise housing and seek to prevent homelessness.
May also said the government was looking at ways to encourage longer-term tenancies. But she said it was important that people could own their own homes and accused Labour of wanting to keep people renting instead. She said Labour wanted to bring in rent controls that did not work and pointed to the housing charity Shelter, which has said Labour’s rent control policies will not help tenants.
May also said the shadow housing minister believed fewer people owning a home was not such a bad thing, adding: “If you live in a council home, he’ll take away your right to buy.”
Corbyn retorted that under the Tories home ownership was down by 200,000 while it had risen under Labour by 2 million. He said too many private homes were not up to decent standard.
Corbyn said Labour brought 1m homes up to a decent standard. He said he hoped May would back a Labour backbench bill saying homes must be fit for human habitation. He asked when the government would get out of the pockets of landlords and developers and deliver good housing.
May hit back saying more affordable houses had been delivered in the last seven years than in the last seven years of the Labour government. The Conservatives were doing what was necessary.
Snap verdict
Corbyn is back on form. Eschewing Brexit, which despite being the story of the day isn’t a topic where he’s been comfortable at PMQs, he devoted all six of his questions to housing and notched up a convincing win with a series of solid, awkward questions. He was at his best at the beginning, with the challenge to May about whether she could commit to reducing homelessness next year, and in his final question, with a powerful clip about the Tories being in the pocket of landlords and developers. It was also a PMQs that saw Corbyn several times defending the record of the last Labour government.
May pushed back with a plethora of statistics about Labour’s record on housing, but criticising Labour for not building houses during a recession is a tenuous line of attack and although May had an intellectual response to Corbyn, she did not have an emotional one. Housing is an increasing problem for more and more people, and they expect the prime minister to show that she gets this. Faced with questions on a topic like this, David Cameron would have exuded some sympathy. May doesn’t have that emotional range, and it’s a weakness.
Memorable lines
When is the government going to get out of the pockets of property speculators and rogue landlords and get on the side of tenants and people without a home of their own?
Corbyn on the government’s housing record.
It’s the Conservatives that are delivering the homes that people need, the economy that people need and the standard of living that people need.
May’s retort.