Southwark Lib Dems demand honesty as Labour housing target exposed as “unfunded fantasy”

Speaking at the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee on Monday (available on parliament.tv), Michael Scorer said the council only had funding for around 3,200 homes – nearly 7,000 under Labour’s promise.

In 2014, Southwark Labour committed to building 11,000 new council homes by 2043. At the time, they described the policy as “ambitious but realistic”.

The Lib Dem opposition group have slammed the Labour leadership in Southwark for misleading residents and letting down those in need of good quality housing.

Southwark has seen a net reduction in council homes of 2,400 since 2010 and over 17,000 people are currently on the council’s housing waiting list.

Commenting, Southwark Lib Dem housing spokesperson Cllr Emily Tester said:

“This admission from the council exposes Labour’s smoke and mirrors approach to social housing in Southwark. All of Southwark is now fully aware that their target of 11,000 new council homes was an unfunded fantasy.

With the future of our council homes programme in jeopardy, all we’re left with is Labour’s record – 2,400 fewer council homes and over 17,000 on the housing waiting list. Residents are not getting the honesty they deserve from the council.

It is more urgent than ever for the government to properly fund the new homes we desperately need. Southwark Labour need to ditch the spin, and focus on fighting for the resources required to provide good quality housing.”

Leader of the opposition, Cllr Victor Chamberlain, added:

“This is yet another broken promise from Labour to the people of Southwark. Their disingenuous pledge has been plastered all over every development in the borough while they’ve known full well it cannot be achieved.

Since announcing this plan in 2014, house building has crawled along while the borough has lost over 800 council homes. Residents deserve better than these empty, politically motivated promises.”