Labor says some of Boris Johnson’s plans will make housing supply crisis ‘even worse’ – UK Politics Live

Michael GoveLeveling up secretary, giving interview this morning about housing plans being announced boris johnson Later in the speech. Here he made some key points.

• Gove said all homes sold under the Right to Buy plan for tenants of the housing association would be replaced. “One of the things we’re doing is making sure there’s a replacement – the same, one replacement for the other,” he said. When asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain how soon the sold homes would be replaced, he replied: “Immediately.”

• He said that there will be a limit on the number of houses that can be sold through this right to buy scheme. Asked what the limit would be, he replied: “That is something I will discuss with housing associations.”

• He dismissed complaints that it was an outdated policy, as it was in the 2015 Conservative manifesto. He said that since the policy was now introduced in the Midlands, the government was in a position to implement it across the country.

• He said the government would review the way the mortgage market as a whole works. He indicated that this could help people get mortgages with smaller deposits.

• He said the government is looking at creating a new savings vehicle to allow people claiming housing benefits to save for deposits. This is necessary because under the current system, people may not be eligible for means-tested benefits if they have more than £16,000 in savings.

• He declined to see how many people are likely to benefit from the proposal to use housing benefit payments to pay mortgages to benefit claimants. It was a “significant number”, he said. But, when pressed on Julia Hartley-Brewer on talk tv, gove He admitted that he did not know how many people would benefit from this. Eventually he claimed it was a “silly question”.

Lisa Nandyo, leveling up secretary, has become the first Labor frontbencher to break ranks and publicly says she supports the railway workers’ strike in the coming weeks if ministers fail to address their concerns. my colleague Jamie Grierson Here is the story.

The government has just published its independent review on the smoking policy. done by Javed Khan, Former CEO of Barnardo, and yesterday my colleague Jessica Elgott revealed that It will propose to raise the legal smoking age to 21.

In fact, the review goes even further. It recommends raising the age at which people can buy tobacco every year, Unless one can buy cigarettes. This is the main recommendation:

The government should stop the youth from starting smoking, which is why I recommend raising the sales age from 18 to one year every year, until no one in this country can buy tobacco products.

This is a policy that has already been adopted in New Zealand. And this is what the report says about it.

It is easier than never to start smoking. This recommendation will lead to a new smoke-free generation, where youth under a certain age are legally prohibited from buying tobacco products, including cigarettes, throughout their lifetime.

While other recommendations will help us reach 2030 smoke-free, it is about the accompanying long-term impact that will make smoking obsolete.

New Zealand, which is banning all sales of tobacco to anyone born after 2008, estimates that assuming effective enforcement of the law, it could halve the smoking rate within 10 to 15 years of implementation. .

In a speech at the launch of the Smokefree 2025 Action Plan, 9 December 2021, New Zealand’s Associate Minister of Health, the Honorable Dr Ayesha Veral, said: “We want to make sure young people never start smoking, so we’re going to have a smoke-free generation law. … As they age, they and future generations will never be able to buy tobacco legally, because the truth is that there is no safe age to start smoking.”

Current smokers will not be banned from their addiction, but over time this action will help save millions of children and young people from addiction. This will create a society of the future where smoking is no longer in demand or even relevant, as the legal age for the sale of tobacco smoke rises and future generations avoid becoming accustomed to this deadly and costly practice.

report summary is Here. and here is complete document.

Boris Johnson is sure to be asked about this later during the Q&A after his speech. As a spontaneous liberal, it is very difficult to see him backing this proposition. He is one of those Tories who instinctively believe that banning things is non-Orthodox.

Good Morning. since he won no-confidence motion on Monday boris johnson Determined to show that he has left partygate behind and is now fully focused on fulfilling his policy agenda and today he is going to demonstrate that what is being described as a major speech, This will cover housing, but will also cover cost of living and the economy generally.

But Johnson’s keynote policy speeches in the past haven’t always landed particularly well (his last year was a level up seen as a flop) And overnight preview Hardly inspiring for today. The first sentence of the press notice said, “The Prime Minister will tell the British public that he is firmly on their side as he reaffirms his commitment to supporting them during this challenging period.” Given that the prime minister is unlikely to tell the public that he is not strongly on their side, this does not count as news.

The press release said Johnson would address the accommodation without specifying what he would propose. However, other briefings before the speech have flagged at least two policies that he will set out: expanding the housing association’s right to buy tenants (a policy the Tories have been promising since 2015, when it came out in the party’s manifesto. was in); and allowing benefit claimants to use housing benefit payments to pay mortgages.

In my first edition briefing, my colleagues Archie Bland The offer looks at the right to buy in detail and states that experts are skeptical about its value. Archie’s article is here.

And Robert Booth has seen what happened when this policy was implemented in the Midlands in 2018. Many of the homes that were sold were not replaced.

Lisa Nandy, The secretary, shadow leveling up, is giving interviews this morning and – in reference to concerns that the right to buy depletes the stock of affordable homes because homes sold are not replaced – she claimed that the PM’s plans for housing The supply could also exacerbate the crisis. Worse. He told Sky News:

We must take more steps to increase the supply of affordable homes.

In the end, this is the only way to really solve the housing crisis for most people.

The measures the government announced today will not begin to do so for most people, and in fact some of them will make the housing supply crisis even worse.

I’ll post more on that, and Michael Gove, Leveling Up secretary, is saying in his morning interview shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

at 10 am: Lord Pickles, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, gives evidence to the Committee on Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs.

11 a.m.: Catherine Birbalsingh, chair of the Social Mobility Commission, delivers a speech to the policy exchange thinktank.

lunch time: boris johnson gives A speech on housing and the cost of living in Lancashire.

And Keir Starmer is visiting Dublin and Belfast to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol, including a protocol with the Taoiseach, Michael Martin.

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