Tenants and would-be homeowners need action, not words, from Angela Rayner

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has a good understanding of the challenge facing her. “Over-promising and under-delivering has been a curse for politicians,” she said on Saturday, “because people have become disillusioned with that, and frustrated, and don’t see politics as a vehicle of change. That’s why we’ve now got to deliver.”

She opens Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool on Sunday with a speech that promises to begin the work of change. There is, sadly, little danger of her “over-promising” on this occasion. While the rhetoric of ensuring that “homes are decent, warm, and safe” is welcome enough, the detail is lacking, and time is already marching on.

In the advance publicity for her speech, her plans to fix the housing crisis seem to have progressed disappointingly slowly since the election. The Independent applauds her announcement that Awaab’s Law will be “brought forward” this autumn. This is a measure to try to deal with some of the terrible conditions in rented housing, which was introduced by the previous government but never made it to the statute book.

It was named after Awaab Ishak, who died aged two in 2020 from prolonged exposure to mould in his housing association home in Rochdale. In its previous form, the law would require landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days, start repairs within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours.

So far, Ms Rayner has not confirmed those timescales, but there is no good reason why these details should not have been resolved long ago, before the election even. There are tenants living in three-quarters of a million homes suffering from hazards such as damp and mould who urgently need action rather than words.

It is all very well the deputy prime minister promising to consult on a new Decent Homes Standard for tenants, but tenants who are waiting for repairs would rather see the old Decent Homes Standard enforced first.

No wonder Adam Hug, the Labour spokesperson on housing for the Local Government Association, says cautiously, “we look forward to seeing the detail behind this announcement”, while pointing out that “councils need further funding” if they are to raise standards in the private rented sector.

That issue of public spending lies unspoken behind much of Ms Rayner’s speech on Sunday. She says the right things about accelerating plans to fix unsafe cladding, seven years after the death of 72 people in the Grenfell Tower fire, but does she have the go-ahead from Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, to promise the money needed to turn those words into action?

More broadly, does she have the political will, and is she supported by the prime minister and the chancellor, in delivering the change that she promises? This is not all about public spending, although that is an unavoidable part of it.

Fundamentally, the housing crisis in Britain is likely to be eased only if Labour succeeds in its ambitious plan to build 1.5m homes over the next five years. So far, there has been a lot of throat-clearing, and condemnations of the Conservatives for their failings, and the launch of consultations on the big revamp of planning law that is supposed to liberate housebuilders to meet pent-up demand. But nothing yet that has got a single extra brick laid.

Let us hope that Ms Rayner understands all this, and that the work is being done, with no fanfare but at speed, behind the scenes. We fear that we have heard politicians issue her warm words and express her good intentions before, but if she does indeed under-promise and over-deliver, she will deserve great praise.