Govt “tackling Tories’ housing emergency”

The government is “tackling the Tories’ housing emergency” in all areas of housing, with Labour soon to implement a remediation “action plan” to swiftly deal with unsafe residential buildings, according to deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.

Speaking at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Rayner, also housing secretary, said the government would this autumn bring forward its new plan for those high-rise buildings still with dangerous cladding to “speed up” the process of remediating them.

“It is completely unacceptable that we have thousands of buildings still wrapped in unsafe cladding seven years after Grenfell,” Rayner stated in her speech. Those responsible for these properties would be pursued “without fear or favour. This must lead to new, safer social housing for the future”.

Rayner said that “whether you’re a leaseholder, a tenant, a home-buyer or without somewhere to live – this government is on your side”. It wished to build not just houses, but homes. “Because we cannot build at any cost. These new homes must be warm, secure and most importantly safe.”

The housing secretary vowed to “reverse the tide” of falling social housing numbers, aiming to build more social homes than are lost “within the first …