‘Let’s get back to that British tradition of making sure that we ease the path to a better life for our future generations’.

Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Dagenham and Rainham Margaret Mullane today shares her monthly column in the Havering Daily.

Up until this last decade there was an unwritten and yet well understood promise in Britain and that was that life would be better and easier for our children and grandchildren. That promise to future generations has been broken.

The most obvious sign of this is in the most basic need in life, a home. When I was growing up I was lucky enough to be living in my mum and dad’s council house in Dagenham. Later as an adult earning a modest income I was able to afford to buy a house. This personal story is shared by so many of my generation, but is about as realisable as flying to the Moon for young families today.

This national problem has been a long time in the making, with housing policies of Tory and Labour governments since the late 1970’s contributing to today’s crisis. Though, I have to say that the disastrous decisions and policies of the Tory governments since 2010 have accelerated and deepened that crisis.

With little chance of home ownership because of a dysfunctional housing market and practically zero possibility of accessing council housing as the number of council homes continues to dwindle, people starting out in life are left withthe last resort, that is private renting. And that last resort can often be very unappealing with sky high rents taking so much of a person’s income, little security and sometimes poorly maintained buildings. In this context the present government’s decision to renege on its promise to ban no fault evictions is a further kick in the teeth for private renters.

It just doesn’t have to be this way, that’s why I will be standing to be the next Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham. Housing has to be a priority for action and for me that means a local increase in new council homes for rent and genuinely affordable homes for local people to buy and stronger rights and security for private renters.

Let’s get back to that British tradition of making sure that we ease the path to a better life for our future generations by starting to sort out the mess that is housing in Britain today. It won’t be easy nor quick to put right the mistakes of decades, but I am determined to play my part in making a start. 

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