Despite a Conference that has been overshadowed by resignations, in-fighting, and Angela Rayner’s now-infamous scum gate slur, one area in which there seems to be agreement within the Labour party is on housing policy. Whilst the Tories have earmarked housing as crucial to delivering their levelling up agenda with the appointment of political heavyweight Michael Gove, the Shadow Minister for Housing Communities and Local Government, is somewhat of an unknown.
Lucy Powell was appointed to her role earlier this year. Despite being the MP for Manchester Central since 2012, she has a relatively low profile, and her profile is dwarfed by that of her counterpart in Government. Having served in both in Ed Milibands’ core team, and in Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet before publicly backing a leadership challenge against him in 2016, Powell is now considered a Starmer loyalist, sharing the most centrist leanings of the current leader of the Labour Party.
Despite this, the policy platform she presented at Conference seems remarkably similar to that of the party’s platform under the previous leadership.
Her speech on Sunday demonstrated significant difference to the Government’s policy direction. In it she tried to contrast Labour as “the party of homeownership” and the Tories as the party of “speculators and developers”, in a line that has become something of a favourite for opposition politicians.
Beyond the rhetoric, Ms Powell pledged a Labour Government to:
Many of these policies come from the unsuccessful 2019 election manifesto. However, it is the view of many within the Labour Party that the individual policies of the manifesto were popular, despite the election result, so some continuity in policy terms is to be expected. As Ms Powell noted in her speech, the appointment of Michael Gove into the housing brief means this issue will be a crucial battleground for the 2024 election. Whilst housing was not given top billing at this Labour party conference, expect it to be bumped up the agenda next year.
It’s clear the Labour and Conservative approach to housing is different, with the former favouring a more interventionist approach to the issues they identify. As the sector gains more traction in the Gove era, time will tell how popular Labour’s proposals are.
© 2022 All Rights Reserved.
ECF is the trading name of Forestville Communications Ltd. Registered in England. 11329697