Everyone deserves a fit place to live. Increasing housebuilding is how we can get there

It has been clear for some time that building houses is one of the key areas on which the government must focus.

The conditions that hundreds of thousands have to live in – revealed by The Independent – highlight how important it is to get a grip on this issue.

According to the latest analysis, around 615,000 rental properties contain what are known as Category 1 hazards – the kind that are deemed the most serious, with the potential to cause death or loss of limb. Add to this statistics that suggest that mould and damp problems are getting worse, and you have a cocktail of problems of which the government should be ashamed.

Labour has vowed to end these shocking conditions, a pledge that is easy to make from outside of government, but it is obvious that neither the Conservatives nor the opposition can ignore the state of the rental market – or of the wider housing market. The solution, or at least a significant part of it, is staring us all in the face. Both parties have been clear that they want more houses to be built, but as the party of government, the Conservatives need to kick these plans into high gear.

There will always be reasons for housebuilding not to take place, but the government needs to find a way. There is political capital in it, too – particularly among the young striving to take their first step on the property ladder. While the long-term fallout from Margaret Thatcher’s housing pledges has been exacerbated by the lack of cohesive planning on the issue in recent years, there is little doubt about the success they brought at the ballot box.

New housing stock will alleviate pressure on the market as a whole, meaning that situations of the sort many renters now find themselves in will become less prevalent. But that will take some time. Therefore the government needs to make sure that it is tackling the problem in other ways.

The Renters’ Reform Bill, which is currently making its way through parliament, is one such way. The legislation will ban no-fault evictions, allowing tenants to challenge such evictions without leaving their homes – and this in turn will reduce the ability of landlords to raise rents while ignoring complaints from those who are living in the properties they own, and then to unfairly force those tenants out.

The fact that the legislation has taken so long to make it this far is disappointing, but it needs to come into force at the earliest opportunity. As does a decent homes standard for the private rental sector – something that is not provided for in the Renters’ Reform Bill. The government has promised to introduce one as soon as it can. Let’s hope we are not waiting too long.

The idea that everyone deserves a place to live that meets a decent standard is not a difficult one to comprehend. The conditions many face fall far short of that. It is a moral issue, and one on which the government has so far been found lacking. This cannot be allowed to continue.