Summary

Corbyn questioned what Cameron is doing to help people suffering from unrealistic house prices and uncapped rents. Cameron easily saw off the question by reeling off policies such as the help-to-buy ISAs, tax cuts, shared ownership and the extension of Right-to-Buy.

The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition clashed over Cameron’s flagship scheme, Right-to-Buy, with Corbyn claiming that just one home has been built for every eight sold under the Government. Cameron retorted that an £8bn housing budget would build more affordable homes and that the Government backs supported housing schemes.

Corbyn quoted the housing charity Shelter, who believe that 180,000 affordable homes will be lost in the coming years, with people forced to become ever-more reliant on the private sector.

The opposition Leader also referenced the fact that the Conservatives had recently (12 January) voted down a law requiring landlords to make their homes fit for human habitation (this was a Labour-proposed amendment to the Government’s Housing and Planning Bill). Corbyn reiterated that too few homes are being built, with young people unable to move out, “when is the prime minister going to realise that there’s a housing crisis in Britain and his government needs to address it now.”

Analysis

Despite the opportunity to grill Cameron over an emotive and vulnerable topic, Corbyn’s questions, particularly his starting few, were too open-ended. This allowed Cameron to easily talk around, and talk up, his Government’s various policies.

Corbyn has been criticised by some in the media for attacking Cameron over housing without many of the electorate having much clarity over what he would do differently, this is despite his policy document ‘Tackling The Housing Crisis’ having been published in August 2015. It has been suggested that Corbyn should use future PMQ’s to promote his own party’s policies in order to enhance lucidity with voters – although it seems he missed an opportunity this week to gain ground over the Conservatives on the issue of housing.