Received from: Unite
Too many homes are poorly insulated, with damp and mould; freezing in winter and overheating in summer. Nearly all our 29 million homes need improvement.
Clearing social housing waiting lists will take over a century at the current rate. Housing costs are driving poverty; scarcity and unaffordability means young people increasingly living longer with parents.
An ambitious industrial strategy can end this crisis and create decent, unionised jobs.
Public investment in building and retrofitting homes would create jobs in every community. Building 90,000 social rented homes would add £51.2bn to our economy through higher employment, lower benefit costs and improved health.
Congress resolves to campaign for:
i. a national large-scale council house building programme across all our local communities and repair existing stock, with councils enabled and funded to do so, and using direct employment
ii. a publicly funded national retrofitting programme to upgrade homes, creating jobs in every local area
iii. every procurement and supply chain decision to prioritise British-based providers and creating decent jobs, maximising the public investment benefits
iv. rolling out bona fide apprenticeships to meet the skills demand.
Congress believes tackling housing costs includes:
a. robust regulation and accountability of housing associations, council and private landlords with stronger tenant, resident and leaseholder rights enabling them to challenge poor housing, expensive maintenance and fees, and ending service charge abuse alongside decent pay and conditions for housing workers
b. greater rent controls, secure tenancies and service charge caps across tenures
c. removing above-inflation rent rises for social tenants.
Unite
AMENDMENT
In paragraph 7, delete ‘creating’.
In paragraph 7, after ‘upgrade homes,’ add:
“learning from the UK’s Natural Gas Conversion Programme to create”
In paragraph 7, after ‘every local area’ add:
“and upskill existing home heating workers under a national industrial agreement with recognised sector unions”
In paragraph 8, after ‘public investment benefits’, add:
“and maximising British-made brick, ceramic and aggregate content in all social housing construction”
In paragraph 9, delete “the”.
In paragraph 9, after ‘apprenticeships,’, add:
“working with sector unions to deliver reindustrialised curriculums and new training facilities”
GMB