Briefing: Queen's Speech 2019

In England, the results of our housing crisis are stark:

• There are 277,000 homeless people in England (including 83,700 homeless households living in temporary accommodation), which includes 61,700 families and more than 124,000 children.

• Home ownership is in decline – the English Housing Survey shows that 63.5% of households owned their own homes in 2017/18, down from 68% a decade ago. At the same time, the average home in England costs eight times more than the average annual pay packet and the share of income that young families spend on housing has trebled over the last 50 years.

• Private renters spend on average 41% of their household income on rent and 800,000 people who are renting can’t even afford to save just £10 a month.

In this context, it is disappointing that the 2019 Queen’s Speech did not commit to measures that will address the issues that ordinary people are facing due to the housing emergency. It is equally disappointing there is no clear place to debate housing around this Queen’s Speech. We call on all of Parliament to ensure this critical national issue is not forgotten by ensuring the following issues are heard by the Government.

To do this we need to:

1. Deliver a new generation of social rented homes;

2. Deliver security for private renters by follow-through on commitments to end Section 21 'no-fault' evictions;

3. Deliver for low income renters by ensuring that housing benefit covers moderate rents now and in the future.