The Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven made his maiden speech this afternoon as the Renters’ Rights Bill was debated in the House of Commons.
Chris Ward said: “I grew up in Brighton. My parents grew up in Peacehaven so it’s a huge honour and responsibility to represent the great constituency of Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven.
“It’s also a privilege to speak in this debate today because of all the bills in this King’s speech, this is the one that will have the most immediate and far-ranging impact on my constituency.
“Why? Quite simply, housing is the single biggest issue in my constituency. It makes up around two thirds of the casework that I receive and dominates every constituency surgery, from overcrowding – typically a mum, dad and three kids crammed in a two-bedroom flat – to overpricing, with home ownership now beyond the reach of far too many and landlords charging London prices in a city that doesn’t pay London wages.
“In Brighton, there is also a persistent problem of homelessness and temporary accommodation, especially in the western part of my constituency.
“There are at least 7,500 people on the council house waiting list – 1,600 households living in temporary accommodation and 50 per cent of those households are those with children.
“Add to that, my constituency has among the highest numbers of high and medium-rise blocks outside of London, with people trapped for years in unsellable and unsuitable homes, and you can see why I wanted to make my maiden speech on the issue of housing.
“This bill is a big step in the right direction. Justlife, a wonderful charity operating with people in temporary accommodation in Brighton, tells me that around a quarter of all homelessness applications in the city are because of section 21 no-fault evictions.
“This bill will finally outlaw that. As the Secretary of State (Angela Rayner) said earlier, applying the decent homes standard to the private rented sector will also give renters the safety and security that they need.
“And there will be new powers for renters to challenge the excessive rent rises that we see far too often in Brighton.
“Given that one in four people in my constituency live in the private rented sector, that’s why I think this will have an immediate and far-reaching impact.
“I also want to thank my predecessors today. When Dennis Hobden won Brighton Kemptown for Labour in 1964, he did so by seven votes and he became the first Labour MP in the whole of Sussex.
“Well, I am pleased to report that there are now six Labour MPs across Sussex – so numerous that we have our own WhatsApp group.
“I also want to thank Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who represented Brighton Kemptown for the past seven years.
“In particular, I thank Lloyd for his work championing LGBTQ rights, an incredibly important issue in Brighton Kemptown, given that it has one of the largest LGBTQ communities in the country.
“I also praise Lloyd’s campaign to ban the heinous practice of conversion therapy – a ban that I am proud to say this Labour government will now pick up and take forward.
“I am delighted to say that I am the first Member of Parliament for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven. Quite right, too, because a third of my constituency extends beyond the boundaries of the city and reaches as far east as Peacehaven.
“Named at the end of World War I, Peacehaven lies on the Greenwich meridian, perched high above the cliffs of the South Downs and looking out on the English Channel.
“It is a wonderful place – although I should say that I am contractually obliged to say that because it is where both my parents grew up, in neighbouring streets, more years ago than they would like me to admit.
“I am sure that many members will have visited my constituency at some point, whether for a trip to the seaside, to see the bustling shops of Kemp Town, the tranquillity of the South Downs, Rudyard Kipling’s house in Rottingdean or the wonderfully restored art deco lido in Saltdean.
“Or some – as the leader of the Liberal Democrats prefers – simply jet-ski around Brighton Marina.
“But for those who have not had the pleasure of going, perhaps the easiest way to picture my constituency is running from west to east, from Brighton pier to Peacehaven, and north to south, from the Amex stadium, home to my beloved Brighton and Hove Albion, through the South Downs and to the seafront.
“In between, you see the diversity and beauty of my constituency – the vibrancy of Kemp Town, the proud working-class communities of Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb, the small towns collectively known as the Deans—Woodingdean, Bevendean, Ovingdean, Saltdean and Rottingdean—and the beautiful green spaces and sloping streets of Queen’s Park.
“But if you look closely, you also see something else – the inequality and injustice that holds back too many lives across my constituency.
“Because behind the picture postcard view – the downs, the pier, the lido – one in four children in my constituency grow up in relative poverty.
“Whitehawk, a stone’s throw from the bustle of Kemp Town, is in the 10 per cent of most deprived wards in the whole country.
“And Moulsecoomb – within sight of the riches of the Amex and the excellence of Sussex and Brighton universities – is the second most deprived ward in Sussex.
“This inequality matters. It thwarts potential. It holds back life chances. As the excellent local campaign group Class Divide emphasises, children from the poorest parts of my constituency are twice as likely to be excluded from school.
“They are three times more likely to be placed outside mainstream schooling and they are half as likely to get good GCSE grades.
“Life expectancy itself varies by seven years from the poorest wards in my constituency to the rest.
“The Prime Minister often says that, for him, politics isn’t about left or right. It’s about who you have in your mind’s eye when you make a decision.
“I hope that for the time that I have the great honour of representing the constituency and community I love, that I will always have in my mind’s eye those who are at the sharp end of this inequality.”
Fewer rental properties are available already as landlords exit the market. Luckily BHCC has now taken the mantle of best slum landlord over.
Yep – millions paid by the council to landlords like Baron Homes and their other family business Moretons over the years – despite the collapsing ceilings and conditions in them.
He also mentioned child poverty in his speech, but Chris, along with Keir and pals are refusing to stop the 2 child benefit cap, which independent experts say is the most cost effective way to allieviate the problem and would lift 540,000 out of poverty. Until they do this, it’s all just words and no action.
Agree – and presumably, as he voted to cut winter fuel allowance from pensioners, he didn’t have women at the sharp end of pension inequality in his “mind’s eye” when he casted his vote.
He did – just following orders guv’nor
There was no way he was going to go against the whip.
Whitehawk in the 10% most deprived in the country ?????? you obviously mean England not the UK, and I doubt you have been North of London before you made that statement. Kids not having their own bedroom by the age of 10 is not poverty, neither is qualifying for school dinners/meals, plenty of areas in England make Whitehawk look like almost decent with some semblance of Local Council Administration, plenty of places in England get more or less abandoned by their local Councils unless they have Police on hand.
To be fair, one of the postcodes in Whitehawk is in the top 3% percentile according the the IMD Indices for Deprivation. Very easily checked, that one.
I know I had a peek, my point was the definition of deprivation and how it gets applied for political convenience, some places have been seriously neglected for decades and never really change and never will unless there is some serious intervention. Industrial areas in their decline were/are generally misled by promises that never get kept, carries on for generations non stop.
Yeah, that’s fair. I like to think about the volunteer groups and organisations that work in the local area to provide support and look after people instead. Unsung heroes, the lot of them.
There should be some recognition for their work, it’s never ending with a whole range of issues to deal with to help people, maybe annual awards or similar. Have to get the Mayor involved I think, wake him up first might get the ball rolling
TDC do a thing with their AGM, got the mayor to give the awards out to Community Champions…hmm, maybe BHCC could do it at the Citywide Conference?
The bottom line is not enough properties have been built for the net 500,000 new inhabitants each year.
You can’t blame landlords as Brighton has a highly transient population, now your waking the stick expect many to sell up.
Speak to a large accountants, because the government decided that the interest element of the loan has been withdrawn and costs are going through the roof some 35% of landlords are losing money and approximately 50% are earning less than 5%-so why put your money in the bank-it will certainly earn the same without the grief.
Forcing LL’s to sell up will only lead to more homelessness as the property are normally on the market for 3 months and a sale takes 6 months to go through. All the time the property is empty-it’s not rocket science.
Thank you Chris for putting your constituency on the map.
Two questions
When are you actually going to live here as promised before the election ?
How was the Taylor Swift concert and did you pay for your tickets ?
He doesn’t sound very bright.
1) So will section 21 make it more or less likely that landlords will rent out property (answer: less likely). There is a huge amount of rental stock that has now been sold and additionally people who in the past moved in with partners that wanted to rent out property in case it didn’t work (or moved out for he area for a few years) are keeping these properties empty.
2) Will this mean higher or lower rents for tenants with less supply (answer: higher rents).
3) Will landlords be more or less likely to rent to anyone other than professional working couples or international tenants with large wealth who can stump up a years rent up front (more likely). Why? fewer rental properties, higher demand and a requirement to be very fussy about accepting anyone to rent who is self-employed, has kids, on universal credit etc.
Labour thinks they can legislate against discrimination. Trust me a landlord just needs to look at a tenants bank statement to see if they have pets, kids, universal credit etc coming in and they will and will just say one of the other 50 applicants was preferable as they have pink hair, were quicker with the first viewing etc.
In effect this will social cleanse Kemptown so I hope the council has lots of their spare slum run without even electrical safety certificates, spare council housing to take up the slack or they just intending to tell people to move to Liverpool or live in a box.
You are right. More needs to be done than just closing off one abused power. It is a start, however.
With respect to your first point single property renters are very much being backed in to a corner. All the additional regulation makes it less and less likely we’ll rent property out, leave it empty and we’ll likely be hammered by council tax even if there is no use of local services and if we sell, we lose thousands in CGT. The only option realistically is to simply move back in to the property which is what I will do. So a loss of a rental unit and no fines or anything that can be applied to the owner to swell council coffers. In short, the responsibility for social housing will revert to the local authority and the government and quite rightly so becuase successive government and council policy is the issue here, not private landlords.
Starmer’s Blarite poodle
Not enough supply is the single reason for high rental prices in Brighton. Private landlords leaving the market in droves due to new regulations and planning applications for new builds take years and are often refused… there is a £280m project on a disused gasworks in his constituency that has been stuck with the council planners for 5 years and just got turned down again by councillors!
Supply is definitely a key issue. I completely agree with you on this front.
Gasworks are an interesting case, they will eventually be built on appeal, there’s no stopping that realistically. But the homes that are going to be built are priced at a level that means that no-one local or on a middle income will be able to live there, so they’ll likely become holiday lets or investment homes for rich people – and therefore not tackling the very problem you describe.
I’m keen to see if the new budget makes some grants available for social housing construction, and I’m also keen to see if this government gives financial support to build more social homes.
Chris Ward has an opportunity here, as someone known to be close to Kier, to influence this to happen.
The developer will be making no more than 5% margin on this development, due to the lack of land available for housing development the site was very expensive and developing a brownfield site like this is also expensive and time consuming. They are taking all the risk and have had to waste millions back and forth with a council that has no plan as to how it can deliver more housing and no understanding about how much it costs to build and develop sites like this. Just to reinforce this, one of the main complaints for the council turning it down was too many lower price, small units and overall too many flats. Fewer flats on the site simply increases the cost per sq ft and ultimate sale price which is totally counterintuitive.. there are many other places this developer could take their investment, leaving the gasworks as a polluted eyesore and Brighton without 100’s of flats it desperately needs ..
Did you see the RRP on the houses they are planning on build on that site, Andreas?
You need to be earning in the region of £90k a year for it to be affordable by even the most generous wage to rent ratios. It’ll be the Marina all over again.
However, if I end up being wrong in a few years time feel free to gloat. I will accept it willingly.
Doubtful that there will be any grants for councils to build housing themselves. Instead, Labour are courting the likes of Blackrock and Lloyds to build ‘affordable’ housing.
The other side of not enough supply is too much demand. Part of this is too many people. Everyone reading this knows we have a negative birth rate, schools are closing in our area yet the population is growing.
There’s a school of thought that suggests that will rebound as it is not consistent.
Loads of waffle from Mr Ward but doesn’t answer the problem…WE NEED MORE HOUSES and stop importing people until we get them.
Good luck with that. What are the latest figures from free gear Kier and his mates? 1,000 boat people are now arriving a day.
Rent controls/tax changes etc in Scotland have resulted in precisely Zero new build to rent projects, and a reduction in properties available, and massive increases in rent when anyone leaves a property.
It has also driven the AirBnB industry underground as it now works by word of mouth. lower tax take and no regulation, but no extra properties available for rent.
This government seems determined to ignore the recent and real-life experiences of Scotland and doomed to repeat the same mistakes and inevitable outcomes. I am quite astounded why they think the outcome will be different in England.
Unfortunately this is what will happen when we have ideoluges, beholden to ‘landlord always bad’ pressure groups, deciding on housing policy.
Prohibition mentality huh? Well, there’s good methods to sniff those out. Ask any community, they’ll know which places are AirBnB.
Fraud is a very serious crime.
I predict huge riots of homeless people next summer
Good luck with that they will just chuck them in prison with all the people that said nasty things on Facebook. We have Animal Farm politicians sticking their snouts in the trough so forget free speech.
I note the Labour Party will also be raising the EPC requirement from E to C. This is simply impossible to obtain in many older Victorian properties which Kemptown is full of. Looks like there will be very few renters in Kemptown left in a few years. This Free Gear Keir corrupt Government is so inept. Any news on controlling immigration to stop the huge population growth or is there still no plan?
We don’t have huge population growth factually.
An excellent eloquent maiden speech to start off with but words come cheaply and they say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions!
History and the constituency will eventually judge him, at the next general election, by whatever he has achieved and not what he said. As always actions speak louder than words!
It would be wonderful if he can get to deliver a real change – good luck to him.