Housing

Dear Member,

A tale of two towns – Croydon’s housing crisis is London’s social time bomb

Under the Tory Government and London’s Tory Mayor, social housing building is at its lowest level for a decade. There’s an urgent need for a “One Nation” housing programme for Croydon.

The supply of decent social homes for rent is now so limited that even low-income families living in dire circumstances are unlikely to qualify.  There’s 7,880 families on Croydon Council’s waiting list. But we believe that another 5,000 could be on the list if Croydon’s Conservative-run council had not dropped them off the list as low priority.

The recent report by BBC’s Newsnight described Croydon Council’s failures on housing the homeless as “an indictment of modern Britain”. Conservative Croydon Council is now infamous for keeping families with young children in cramped, sub-standard bed and breakfast accommodation for more than six weeks, the maximum period allowed by law. And what was shown on television was a long way short of the worst examples that the BBC producers found in our borough.

In Croydon, even long-serving Conservative councillors are trying to pass the blame for the housing crisis they have created to the “posh boys” in the Tory-run Government. Under this Conservative Government, there’s been a 17 per cent increase in the number of families losing their homes.

Rents in private sector in London soaring by six-times the rate of inflation

Even for those in London on middle to higher incomes, home ownership is an increasingly distant dream: housing charity Shelter says that the average first-time buyer, who gets no help from the Bank of Mum & Dad, now has to rent for 31 years in order to buy their own home in London, costing them £300,000 in private sector rent in the process.

With the Tories abandoning the homeless and the need to provide social housing, those left in the “bulging middle” of society are left with one option – the private rented sector, where rents soared by 12 per cent last year alone.

Yet more than one-third of homes in the private rental sector do not meet standards for a decent homes. Tenants are often exposed to rogue landlords, short-term tenancies and a lack of stability.


Government figures show that the number of these homes built in London has fallen every year since Boris Johnson’s election as London Mayor in 2008. In Croydon North it is clear to see ever more houses being converted into flats, and flats being converted in smaller bedsits, under the pressure of growing population, falling incomes and increasingly out of control exploitative private rented sector.

Without a Labour Government and Labour council, increasingly Croydon will become a tale of two towns. It’s a social time bomb. With more families in desperately cramped and expensive housing, often forced to make frequent moves, children will be unsettled and underachieve at school, the health of families will suffer and the next generation’s life chances slip backwards.

Housing is the clearest and most dangerous dividing line in our community. We need to set the agenda for tackling the housing crisis for the whole community in Croydon, and not just for the benefit of property developers’ annual profits. We need social homes for the low-paid, affordable homes for those starting their families, and Co-operative schemes for middle income families.

I look forward to working together with you in the best interests of the people of Croydon,

Val Shawcross AM CBE

BBC Newsnight on Croydon Council