Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Resolving the local government and housing crises: an open letter to Labour
The Labour Campaign for Council Housing is calling for support for an open letter on resolving the local government and housing crisis, writes MARTIN WICKS
Houses in Bristol

WITHOUT a break from austerity the housing crisis will not be resolved. With a general election not far away and local government finances spiralling out of control, the question is posed of whether a Labour government will come to the rescue of local authorities or continue with austerity.

The Guardian editorial on the government’s Autumn Statement was right when it said that the next government “has either to repudiate Jeremy Hunt’s disastrous cuts or enact them.” The statement built-in austerity to pay for National Insurance cuts.

Media reports suggested that the Labour leadership had yet to decide whether or not to stick to Tory spending plans, as New Labour did in 1997.

Acute shortage of council housing

Local Housing Allowance

Review the ‘self-financing regime’

Section 114 notices

‘No more money?’

Repudiate Hunt’s disastrous cuts

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
John Wheatley. Photo: wellcomeimages.org/CC
Features / 22 November 2025
22 November 2025

Building is the solution for much of our housing crisis – and will also help to address poverty, ill health, and even anti-social behaviour and alienation, writes KENNY MacASKILL

Various For Sale, Sold and Let By estate agent signs juxtaposed next to a Dreams store in Clapham, London
Class / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON

Terraced residential houses in south east London
Features / 19 June 2025
19 June 2025

GLYN ROBBINS celebrates how tenant-led campaigning forced the government to drop Pay to Stay, fixed-term tenancies and council home sell-offs under Cameron — but warns that Labour’s faith in private developers will require renewed resistance