The Green Party is using housing inequality to punish Labour
Fancy an easy vote-winner with young Londoners? Promise to help them with housing. Pointing that out is stating the obvious: the capital’s rental market is widely seen as dysfunctional. Costs have risen sharply over the past decade and, according to the Office for National Statistics, many London renters now spend more than 40 per cent of their income on rent.
So it makes sense, then, that the Green Party – which is hoping to make significant gains in London’s local elections on 7 May – has made housing central to its campaign.
According to an internal memo shared by party officials with on-the-ground campaigners and seen by the New Statesman, one of the main issues identified as driving voters away from Labour is affordable housing. This, according to internal feedback gathered through canvassing and outreach, is compounded by a perception among some voters that Labour councils are more interested in striking “deals with developers” than delivering for residents.
The Green Party plans to adjust its attack lines on the capital’s doorsteps accordingly. The memo urges canvassers to prioritise one “focused message” on their rounds: that “failing Labour councils” are in “hock to developers”. The Greens also point to reporting in the i newspaper that Steve Reed attended a dinner with housing developers who had paid to attend, as part of this critique.
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The memo acknowledges that significant Green gains in London are far from guaranteed. According to feedback from campaigners in key target boroughs – Hackney, Haringey, Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich – canvassers report a consistent sense of some voters drifting away from Labour. However, it adds: “not all are yet in the Green column, so this is an area where we need to up our game in the coming weeks”. This renewed focus on affordable housing is clearly an attempt to win over those undecided voters. But will it work?
This explicit focus on rent controls and affordable housebuilding is indicative of a new era for the Green Party, one in which its politicians embrace an unapologetically left-wing, urban stance, designed to appeal to city-dwellers and graduates. On the surface, it may seem to be a departure from the traditional approach of Greens in rural areas – some of whom are wary of new housing and development (gaining the mantle of Nimby). Could this sharp focus on housing disengage some of those voters?
Launching his party’s local election campaign in south-east London, Zack Polanski pledged to prioritise building affordable housing, the introduction of rent controls, and the reform or replacement of the leasehold system. He said: “Greens in local government will offer a real alternative to the failing Labour status quo.”
If some of this sounds similar to what the Labour Party has said on housing, that’s because it is. Though the government has not committed to capping rents, Sadiq Khan has repeatedly called for the devolution of rent control powers to help slow rising housing costs in the capital. Meanwhile, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill currently progressing through Parliament would restrict the use of leasehold in new housing developments and introduce wider reforms.
The pledges set out by Polanski would go further than these measures, building on a campaign by Greens Organise – a group close to the leadership – to oppose local government austerity. They hope that this additional ambition will push undecided Labour voters in their direction. The party’s next challenge, however, will be to turn that support into electoral gains – and, ultimately, to deliver.
[Further reading: Labour is divided over Green threat]
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