00:00There are obviously 11 million renters across the country,
00:02partly because we haven't built enough homes, but in particular enough
00:05genuinely affordable social rented homes. There's lots of people
00:08now in the private rented sector that weren't there before, and that's not just
00:10the young and the mobile, but lots of older people and those with families.
00:13They've been particularly hard hit by the cost of living crisis, lots of them
00:16are financially vulnerable, they're desperate for greater rights
00:18and protections, and they've been completely let down by the Conservatives.
00:21The Conservative manifesto in 2019 promised a fairer deal for renters,
00:25promised to abolish section 21 no-fault evictions, and they utterly let renters
00:28down. They had five years, they didn't pass that legislation.
00:31Labour are going to act where the Conservatives have failed and introduce
00:34legislation that decisively levels the playing field between landlord and
00:37tenant, and makes tenants better off, because the fact that they're not better
00:40off is hampering growth and productivity
00:42across the country. We're not advocating hard rent control because
00:45we worry that doing that would probably lead to landlords exiting the market,
00:50might make things a lot worse for tenants. What we have been
00:53advocating for some time, both in trying to strengthen the government's
00:56legislation, but also in our plans going forward,
00:59is to deal with extortion within tenancy rent rises. We've got to give tenants
01:02greater protection there, better means of redress when landlords
01:06attempt to hike rent, because if you think through, if we
01:09abolish section 21 no-fault evictions, the most obvious
01:12loophole for evicting tenants is to just jack up their rent by
01:16200, 300 percent. So we've got to give residents greater protection in that
01:19area, but not hard rent controls. What we're talking about when it comes to
01:22Greenbelt, yes we absolutely do need to release some parts of the Greenbelt
01:25occasionally. There's not enough brownfield previously used land
01:28in the country to meet housing need. The Conservatives are releasing Greenbelt
01:32in large parts of the country. They're doing it in a completely haphazard,
01:35chaotic way, often for speculative development.
01:37All we're saying is that there's a smarter way to do so. Let's have
01:40strategic Greenbelt release, local authorities releasing the right
01:43parts of the Greenbelt when they have to,
01:45particularly low-quality greybelt land. You know, the Greenbelt isn't in any way
01:49green and pleasant in every aspect. Let's release the right parts, and
01:53when we do so, and I think this transforms the conversation about
01:55development, when we do develop on that Greenbelt land that's been released,
01:58let's make sure it meets local housing need, it has the appropriate
02:01infrastructure, amenities and services, because too much Greenbelt development
02:05at the moment doesn't have that, and I think it inflames anti-development
02:08sentiment in general. We've got to deal with,
02:10not just, you know, the people who are going to oppose any type of development
02:14anyway. We've got to take those people on. We've got to have a better offer for
02:17the larger number of people who just say,
02:18I'm happy with development locally, as long as it's good development, as long as
02:21it's exemplary, it's meeting local housing need, it's taking our local
02:24housing council waiting list down, for example.
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