Lambeth Council has built only one in nine of the homes needed

Lambeth Council has built only 11 per cent of the affordable homes needed in the borough.

Experts claim that the council needs to build more than 4,000 to provide for people in the borough. The council has built 478 homes, so that's one in nine of the houses needed.



A report from Homelessness charity Shelter ranked Lambeth 241 out of 323 councils for meeting the need for affordable housing. It was 22nd in the list of London councils.

Shelter estimates that 1.8 million homes needed to be built and that one million children live in crowded conditions.

In addition, the council has also stated that half of its houses are not decent and the organisation it put in charge of the homes is in financial difficulties.

Threat of repossession


Meanwhile, when I was out canvassing in Vauxhall at the weekend, my supporters and I came across leaflets thrust into letter boxes advertising for flats and houses. Apparently these leaflets were offering to buy out people who were in debt with their mortgages (obviously a number of flats have been bought by their occupiers).

This is a tempting offer for someone deeply in mortgage debt. But it shows how unscrupulous would-be landlords are taking advantage of the recession and unemployment to buy up more property and then rent it out at great expense.

Instead of the council building plenty of cheap housing to cater for working class families and providing cheap, quality housing, we have the bosses and their cronies making money out of workers' misery while the rest of us face rising rents and fewer council houses to rent.


Labour has overseen a housing crisis both locally and nationally. But let's remember that it was the Tories who sold off the council houses in the first place and that the Lib Dem/Tory run Lambeth did nothing to solve this crisis.

I will fight for no repossessions, a frieze on rents and for building a million homes to give people affordable housing. 

Read my policies on cheap housing for all