Beyond the fringe

No coincidence that her speech centred on overcrowding and issues with temporary accommodation. These are the problems blighting many of her constituents in the hotly contested battleground of Brent (where, due to boundary changes, we will witness the unusual scenario of two sitting MPs – Sarah Teather and Dawn Butler – fighting over one seat).

A week later in Brighton, Labour MP for Dagenham, Jon Cruddas, appeared at a fringe jointly hosted by Shelter and Compass to challenge housing minister John Healey on Labour’s failures in tackling the housing needs of working class people.

No coincidence that his constituency is full of just the type of disaffected white working class families who are badly hit by housing affordability problems and have abandoned Labour en masse, in many cases in favour of the BNP. In east London, as in Brent, the shortage of housing is a politicised issue and one that local politicians ignore at their peril.

No problem. It’s good to see examples of MPs who care deeply about their constituencies and want to do something about the housing crisis, even if they also want to win votes. But there’s a flipside to this. The unfortunate political reality is that in many constituencies housing is just not as big a political issue for voters as it is in others.

In polls, housing always ranks far lower as a political priority for voters than health and education and crime. As a result housing, for most MPs and candidates, inevitably ends up towards the bottom of the policy pile. At all three conferences, the absence of any strong political will on housing was uncomfortably obvious. Just look at the PM’s speech: he didn’t even see fit to trumpet his own recent housing measures, presumably because it didn’t ‘test’ well with focus groups.

‘At all three party conferences, the absence of any strong political will on housing was uncomfortably obvious’

In a fringe event about leaner government at Conservative conference, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond was explicit in revealing the obvious: that political considerations – more than cold, hard facts and economic pressures – determine the difficult decisions the party has to make in ranking policy priorities.

According to Hammond, the reason that the Conservatives have decided to ring fence NHS funding in the inevitable public spending slash and burn is very simply because this is what the public is deemed to value most.

Doing the rounds of the housing fringes at all three conferences, it was clear that housing – as a political issue – is stuck in a rut, in the realm of the technical policy wonk and the special interest group.

It was rare to come across any discussions that succeeded in elevating housing from the niche policy world to the bigger political stage.

However, there’s no inherent reason why housing shouldn’t be one of those ‘make or break’ political issues for politicians, along with health and education (as it was in the post-war period). After all, the shortage of housing and housing affordability issues affect everyone, one way or another.

But key voters haven’t been making the connection between the housing problems they and their families face on the one hand, and the decisions made by politicians at national and local level on the other.

Unless housing campaigners and lobbyists can find a way of making housing an issue on the doorsteps, the lack of voter interest may mean that the political will to tackle the crisis remains elusive.