Housing and construction put at heart of economic strategy as part of a bid to reposition Labour as a 鈥渙ne nation鈥� party
The Labour Party has put housing and the construction industry at the heart of its economic strategy as part of a bid by leader Ed Miliband to reposition it as a 鈥渙ne nation鈥� party.
On Monday shadow chancellor Ed Balls pledged to introduce a 拢3bn programme to build 100,000 homes and cut stamp duty, while Miliband used part of his speech to pledge to focus on vocational training and apprenticeships.
Shadow housing minister Jack Dromey said the announcement by Balls was a 鈥渓andmark day鈥� for the Labour Party. 鈥淭his is a hugely significant day for Labour and housing,鈥� he said.
鈥淗ousing鈥檚 not been sufficiently centre stage in British politics for 25-30 years. This is going to change.
鈥淭he best way to get Britain moving is to get it building, and that鈥檚 what we intend to do.鈥�
Balls鈥� speech said a Labour government would employing 150,000 people directly and up to 600,000 in the supply chain, and furthermore cut stamp duty on the purchase of homes of up to 拢250,000.
In addition he said Olympic Delivery Authority chair John Armitt had designed to build cross party consensus on major infrastructure projects.
Meanwhile Ed Miliband, speaking on Tuesday laid out a 鈥渙ne nation鈥� vision of the Labour Party, saying that, if elected, all firms working on government contracts will have to employ apprentices. In return, businesses would be given control of designing and running vocational training courses.
In addition he pledged to focus on the 鈥渇orgotten 50%鈥� of children that don鈥檛 go to university, with the introduction of a 鈥渢echnical baccalaureate鈥� for vocational training between 16-18.
Speaking to 好色先生TV, Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said the focus on housing and 鈥渙ne-nation鈥� government were inextricably linked. 鈥淚f you look at the history of the Labour party, the people who founded the labour party [were the people that] built Britain, they built the homes we live in, the schools we learn in and the hospitals where we get treated.
鈥淚t鈥檚 at the heart of the one-nation Britain argument. We need banks to be financing our small businesses so they can create the jobs and wealth we need to see.
鈥淲e need our businesses to work with our educational institutions, particularly in the FE sector, so we鈥檝e got job ready-people coming through their doors. And of course that鈥檚 massively relevant to the construction industry.鈥�
The party鈥檚 focus on housebuilding was launched as government figures revealed that just 250 homes had been sold under the government鈥檚 NewBuy mortgage guarantee scheme between its launch in March and 30 June.
Matthew Oakley, head of economics at right of centre think tank Policy Exchange, said: 鈥淚 agree with Ed Balls鈥� announcement on housing. We need to build more houses and it is becoming a huge political issue. But 拢3bn for one year is not enough.鈥�
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