Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing John Healey MP, responding to the government’s announcement on renting, said:

“These disappointing proposals fall far short of what is needed.

“Government figures show that affordable housebuilding has fallen to the lowest level in 24 years, with the number of homes being built for social rent now at the lowest level since records began.

“Ministers continue to do next to nothing to help people who rent from a private landlord and have consistently blocked Labour’s attempts to change the law to control costs and give renters security.

“Ministers even voted down Labour’s efforts to ensure that private rented homes were simply fit for human habitation.

“After seven years of failure on housing, renters deserve better than this.”

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, commenting on a report by the Commons Transport Select Committee, said:

“Privatised rail has left us with a fragmented and inefficient network that drives up costs and under delivers.

“A railway works best as an integrated network but privatisation and franchising have meant breaking it up to create opportunities for companies to extract a profit, resulting in costly inefficiencies. For example, hundreds of people are employed full time on the railway to argue about which company is responsible for delays.

“It’s not just that money which should be used to improve services or keep fares down is syphoned off or wasted, we have a confusing fare structure and services are disjointed and difficult to use for passengers.

“The current system is broken. It is time for our railways to be run under public ownership, in the public interest as an integrated national asset with affordable fares for all and long-term investment in the railway network.”