Housing help with Labour: a good first step

As someone who has made housing my No.1 priority I am delighted with the measures announced yesterday by the Labour Government.

They're a good first step with several more needed. I'm really pleased they build on several of the points in my housing action plan that I presented to Housing Minister Caroline Flint MP at the House of Commons earlier this year.

The level at which Stamp Duty becomes payable has been raised to £175,000. That's not enough to apply to that many homes in Putney and I've said the minimum level it should start at should be £250,000 in high price areas like London. But there are lots of homes in our area that do cost less than £175,000 and this will make things a little easier for those first-time buyers.

Next, the Government, working with major housing developers will provide loans of up to 30% of the value of a property, which don't need to be repaid for five years. This is a variant of the HomeBuy scheme I've been calling for - under my plan the loan would only be repaid when the property is sold but this is a fine alternative.

Third, Councils like Wandsworth will now have the ability to pay off someone's mortgage debt and in return set an affordable rent instead. This is a massive test for the Conservative Council which has more than halved the number of affordable homes for rent in Wandsworth - something that has massively worsened our local housing crisis. I very much doubt the Tories will suddenly u-turn and step in to help those under threat of losing their homes - but they should.

And finally the restrictions on councils being able to build new affordable homes have been lifted. There is now no excuse for the Conservatives to start repairing the damage they have done to affordable housing in Wandsworth.

In contrast, we learnt today that the completely unchanged Tories plan to spare the very richest Inheritance Tax - which will now apply to homes worth £2 million or less.

This is one of the key choices you will face at the next election: help for hard-pressed workers with Labour or tax breaks for the very richest under the Tories. Days like today, and choices like this are what make me Labour and proud of it.

Tell me your housing priorities with my local housing survey.