Housing

Despite year on year growth in homelessness, despite two earners on average incomes not being able to realistically afford to purchase even so-called affordable houses, the government continues to spout the lie that they are on top of it. They are not. Young people continue to emigrate from one of the richest countries in the world. Families are even emigrating to access better disability services for their children. It is a shameful state of affairs.

Money is being shovelled away from the public sector and then the public sector is blamed for lack of delivery. The cost of buying a home has increased ten-fold and more since the 80's and 90's but wages most certainly have not kept pace. Families with jobs and incomes that 30 and 40 years ago enabled them to purchase a home and rear a family now can not. We need to get back to delivering public housing, publicly. The attempt in recent decades to divert that money into the private sector has failed miserably. It has not delivered. It is unfair to this generation and to coming generations if we don't recognise and stop the failure that our housing provision across the rental and buying sectors has become. We did it before and we can do it again.

To read the full Social Democrats Housing policy, click here.