Corbyn Promises Homes to Homeless
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Labour has pledged to provide 8000 homes to people with a history of sleeping rough ‘immediately’, should they win power.
Leader Jeremy Corbyn said they would help councils ‘take over’ properties that are kept empty deliberately. He remarked that the scale homelessness was ‘disgusting’ and ‘holy unnecessary’. Conservative David Lidington said the reasons people were sleeping rough were complex and the government had set ambitious targets to reduce that number.
Outlining Labour’s plan of action, Corbyn pledged more council properties with lifetime tenancies at secure rent, along with more intervention from the private rented sector.
Labour stated they would work with charities and outreach workers to identify rough sleepers, putting them in accommodation as ‘quickly as possible’. New figures show that rough sleeping in England has increased for the seventh year in a row. There were 4,751 people estimated to be sleeping outside in autumn 2017, which is a 15% rise from 2016. It is also more than double the figure that was recorded five years ago.
Conservative Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said there were ‘a number of different reasons’ rough sleeping had risen. He put these reasons on mental health issues and drug/alcohol dependencies.
‘We have pledged to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it by 2027.’
While Corbyn may be one of Labour’s most popular leaders, he didn’t rally the youth as we were led to believe. A study was released saying there had been a 16% rise in voters between the ages of 18-25. It turned out that around 40% of 20-year-olds turned out, which was the same as 2016.