A Lot More to Do – Fairer Housing

Westminster is an amazing place to live but faces a number of different housing challenges. For decades not enough social rent or key worker housing has been built in this city, private renters have too regularly experienced poor conditions and the council’s housing services have felt unresponsive to tenants’ and leaseholders’ needs. Labour has been taking action but we know there is a lot more to do over the next four years.

 Regeneration: Building homes, building communities

Labour inherited decades of underinvestment in new social and affordable housing under the Conservatives. The Conservative council’s own pipeline of developments focused on delivering mainly private housing with often 35% or fewer new flats at  affordable rents; of these the majority were at higher intermediate rents that were often unaffordable for ordinary households. In contrast, Westminster Labour’s Truly Affordable Housing Strategy created an additional 350 council homes for social rent. Our ambitious plans for the future mean that we will:

• Build up to 1,500 social and truly affordable homes by 2035 across Westminster as part of our overall pipeline to deliver 2,700 homes, including at Ebury Bridge, Church Street, 291 Harrow Road and Lisson Grove, and on our new sites at Sussex Street, Bravington Road, Queen Mother Sports Centre and the Brunel Estate.
• Commit to delivering at least 50% affordable homes on all council sites, with 70% of those at social rent and 30% for key workers at London Living Rent.
• Only use the delivery of homes for private sale to directly fund and maximise the delivery of affordable and council rent homes across Westminster, and always look for ways, such as GLA grants and other external funding sources, to deliver above 50% affordable wherever possible.
• Aim to deliver 100% affordable developments at Bravington Road and Sussex Street, having already delivered 16 fully affordable sites since 2022.
• Consider where existing council assets and land could be transformed into housing by prioritising housing first when reviewing underutilised assets, and identify opportunities to purchase land across Westminster to deliver more affordable housing.
• Take a holistic, place-based approach to regeneration that puts communities at its heart. We will create thriving neighbourhoods with high-quality public spaces and community facilities where people from all backgrounds can live and grow together.
• Invest in community capacity-building and use co-design principles trialled at Church Street Sites B and C to ensure local residents help shape the places they live in.
• Ensure local people will always benefit from regeneration in their area being prioritised for the new housing under a Local Lettings Plan and a tailored offer.
• Increase the delivery of specialist housing as part of our regeneration programme to meet the needs of older people, residents with disabilities and complex needs, care leavers, and those requiring supported accommodation.
• Ensure key worker housing is truly affordable by ensuring intermediate homes on council land are always at or below the London Living Rent, unlike the Conservatives who built ‘affordable’ homes at much higher rents.
• Work with delivery partners who commit to social value, ensuring regeneration benefits local people throughout construction and beyond, including investing £1m into the Church Street area.
• Prioritise green and sustainable development, including committing to our groundbreaking retrofit first approach on our own housing delivery schemes, such as at Bravington Road, and incorporating the highest possible environmental standards on new developments, by using 291 Harrow Road as a test-bed learner site to exceed current regulatory requirements.
• Work strategically with public sector partners, such as TfL and Network Rail, to unlock land for housing and deliver as many social homes and truly affordable as possible (targeting at least 50% affordable on all public land).
• Use our Housing Compact to encourage and support Registered Providers to deliver more social and key worker housing in Westminster.

Helping private renters, leaseholders and tackling short-term lets

Under the Conservatives, private sector housing problems were simply left to the market and their deregulation of short-term letting has caused misery for communities and cut housing supply. Labour has changed this, and if re-elected we will:

• Stamp out short-term lets on council estates, through new agreements with short-term letting platforms to ensure listings are removed as soon as they are identified.
• Work with landlords and freeholders to support them in ending unlawful short-term letting, by providing support, guidance and toolkits to help them take action.
• Work with the Government to implement a robust short-term lets registration scheme that works for Westminster and protects residential communities.
• Recruit more short-term lets enforcement officers. We have already doubled the size of the team and will increase it further to implement the new registration scheme, reinvesting revenue generated through the scheme and providing additional funding.
• Increase enforcement against empty homes, bringing more properties back into use and ensuring that they all pay the empty homes premium.
• Ensure all private landlords are licensed under our Selective Licensing Scheme or Additional HMO Licensing Scheme, enabling the council to double the size of the Private Renters enforcement team so we can move from reactive enforcement to proactive inspections to guarantee decent standards.
• Strengthen the voice of private renters through the Private Renter Sector Tenants Forum to help all renters know their new rights.
• Work constructively with landlords, supporting early intervention where tenants are at risk of homelessness and helping landlords offer homes to households in need.
• Empower renters to know and exercise their rights, through clear, accessible advice and support under the Renters’ Rights Act, including access to the new tribunal system and Rent Repayment Orders for unlicensed properties.
• Campaign for stronger local powers to stabilise rents, within and between tenancies, and for Local Housing Allowance to keep pace with inflation and real housing costs.
• Fund new independent advice and support for private leaseholders and develop a private Leaseholder Charter to help signpost to support available.
• Keep our residents safe in their homes, with our nationally leading Building Safety Programme.

Housing services fit for the future

Labour inherited housing services that were struggling after years of neglect under the Conservatives. We initiated a Housing Improvement plan that has sought to make the council’s housing department more responsive to local residents’ concerns and more accessible, opening estate offices, creating a rent support fund and driving up standards. The Social Housing Regulator has awarded the service its highest possible rating but we know there’s a lot more still to do to deliver the service we know everyone needs. If we are re-elected we will:

• Scrap the inflexible 10-year housing contracts the council was locked into by the Conservatives for repairs and major works such as with Morgan Sindall. In order to bring repairs and major works under greater control and deliver a service closer to residents we are introducing shorter, more accountable contracts with stronger day-to-day oversight, so services can be improved quickly when things go wrong. Through a new strategic alliance with our main contractors, we will set clearer standards, improving performance management and ensuring the council has greater control over delivery.
• Fix repairs fast and properly. We will work to make sure repairs are dealt with properly – not ignored, delayed or repeatedly passed around the system. We will introduce smarter technology that flags any repair reported more than once, so problems are tracked, prioritised and fixed first time. Alongside this, we will strengthen resident oversight of repairs performance, giving tenants clearer visibility of how issues are handled and a stronger voice in holding services to account.
• Strengthen our housing CCTV to keep our Estates safe. We are overhauling and improving the Housing CCTV service. A new, higher specification will apply to all future CCTV installations, ensuring better quality and the ability to access footage far more easily. New cameras will be installed wherever there is a clear operational need, with rapid interim measures available for urgent cases. The council’s public‑realm CCTV network can now be deployed to cover public open spaces on our housing estates, with installations already on the Hallfield, Churchill Gardens and Amberley estates and with more to come.
• Put residents at the heart of housing services by strengthening resident engagement forums, making them easier to access and more effective. Housing services will be shaped by the people who use them, with clearer routes for residents to influence decisions and get responsive, reliable support.
• Improve the major works service. Labour will continue the improvement of the major works service through the complete restructure already under way, bringing in greater expertise and ensuring better planning, clearer communication with residents, and delivery that is on time and to a high standard.
• Make housing services more transparent. Labour will continue to make housing services more transparent, with clearer information for residents and open communication so residents can see what is happening, why decisions are made, and how issues are being resolved.
• Tackle damp and mould urgently. Labour has established a dedicated damp and mould team and will ensure cases are treated urgently and properly. We will take a zero-tolerance approach to damp and mould, acting quickly to protect residents’ health and prevent problems from recurring.
• Retrofit homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run. Labour has already retrofitted more than 2,000 council homes, improving insulation and energy efficiency to make them warmer, greener and cheaper to run. We will build on this progress by retrofitting as many more homes as possible, helping residents cut energy bills while reducing carbon emissions across the borough.
• Improve Leaseholder Advice. A Labour-led council will fund a new independent advice service for council leaseholders as part of our engagement with local advice providers
• We will protect secure tenancies for local residents. Labour brought back secure tenancies, restoring security, stability and dignity to council tenants. The Conservatives previously replaced lifetime secure tenancies with five year fixed-term tenancies, creating uncertainty for many residents and massive amounts of bureaucracy for local housing officers. If the Conservatives regain control of the council, they will reverse Labour’s policy and return to short-term tenancies.
• We are making the Rent Support Fund permanent. Labour established the Rent Support Fund, which provides £1m a year to support residents who need help with their rent bills but who aren’t receiving housing benefit. We have secured its future by building it into the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), underlining our long-term commitment to permanent, reliable support for tenants.

Improving our temporary accommodation

The pressures in the private rental market since the pandemic have led to significant increase in statutory homelessness across the country. Westminster has been investing in increasing the proportion of temporary accommodation (TA) it owns, particularly in Westminster, and arranging lease arrangements for other TA that is both more stable and efficient. If we are reelected we will:

• Invest in more high quality temporary accommodation for local families. If re-elected we will invest £170m in acquiring new homes that can provide temporary accommodation of a standard equivalent to a permanent council home, building on the £280m investment over the last four years. The focus of this investment will be in re-acquiring former right-to-buy homes here in Westminster and this approach will be backed by additional funding from the Mayor of London’s Council Homes Acquisition Programme (CHAP) programme.
• Back the 5 Basics to improve standards in interim and temporary accommodation. We will deliver our commitments to the Trust for London and Z2K’s campaign to improve cooking and laundry facilities, wifi, storage and information to those in TA.

Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU)

The Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU) is now beyond its life cycle and requires full renewal or replacement, with running costs rising year on year and damage being caused to people’s homes. Doing nothing is not an option if we are to ensure a reliable and sustainable heating system for residents, but we know residents have understandable concerns about costs and the impact of the project. An expert evaluation of different options is underway, reporting in winter 2026/27 and any decision on the future will take place in 2027 after further engagement with residents. If we are re-elected we will:

• Sort out the Pimlico District Heating Undertaking. A shortlist of replacement options will be carefully analysed, and Labour will ensure that the option chosen is the most affordable and least disruptive to residents, delivering value for money while minimising disruption to the community and improving engagement with residents.