Lib Dems: Labour can’t keep their housing promises without EU workers
Responding to Labour’s council and social housing programme, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government Tim Farron said:
It won’t be councils denying planning permission for new council homes under Labour, it will be Labour denying entry to the EU workers travelling here to build them.
10% of our construction industry workforce is made up of EU citizens, but – just like the Tories – Corbyn’s Labour has failed to back free movement from the EU. Under Labour, the workforce we rely on will no longer be available in the UK.
We can only build the homes Britain so badly needs if we stop Brexit and a Liberal Democrat government will do just that. We are the only party with a bold plan to stop Brexit and build a brighter future.
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12 Comments
Mark, was I dreaming or has there been a strategic pivot in the last 24 hours viz ourselves and the Tories?
So 90% of builders are not from the EU and not being in the EU could be good for youngsters wanting to get into the building trade.
I’m struggling to understand how someone who was a UKIP candidate in 2010 passed the candidate approval. Let alone how that was allowed to happen without scrutinising their past social media comments for ‘problems’. It’s a lack of basic basic competence.
The trouble with getting the young to join the building trade will depend on the availability of training places.It takes a while to be trained.Overseas workers will be needed in the short term, say a couple of years. My other halfs daughter has 2 sons. They work in the building trade but had to wait for training places but are now doing well. Cos we can,in the past!< get workers from abroad the incentive to train our own was not their cos it costs money to put in training coursesHowever if the country does not recognise training as part of Industry I do not fancy our chances in a rapidly changing world.
nigel hunter21st Nov ’19 – 11:40am21st Nov ’19 – 11:40am
Have a look at Grand Designs on Channel 4 and More4.
They are not all expensive houses. One is a community in Brighton, where they all worked in the construction. none of them want to leave, “You would have to be mad!”
Others show that most of the work can be done in factories. Some architects demonstrate that small (neglected) sites can be used and/or that alternative materials can be used, sloping sites, sites with trees can be protected from machinery used on site during construction, and more, and more.
With huge sums of govn money being thrown around, getting a decent day’s work out of the builders will be difficult and rates of pay will be hugely inflated, so all these new govn assets will be overvalued and if we are lucky worth half what they cost.
Labour has accepted that its manifesto needs to be costed, which is good, so far.
It is a long document, which takes hours to read.
Levels of planned spending depend on the outcome of a referendum on remain / leave.
Both should be provided, and audited.
Indeed Glen it might be good for young people to fill the vacancies left by fleeing EU works and they will flee, but where are these jobless young people coming from. There is no box of jobless young workers available, they are all in employment or education. Are you going to force university students to give up education to become brick layers? But what about the young working in dead end jobs, I hear you say, would they not be better being chippes or sparks, probably Glen but who replaces them in the roles they fill now. The economy is running hot now the scope for ridding yourself of EU workers is minimal for if they flee the economy will be dislocated, the NHS will buckle. The only solution is forcing the old back to work to fill the gaps, I’m sure you, Peter et al will be willing to fill the fruit pickers shortage.
Labour’s manifesto can only be achieved if all but the lowest earners pay more tax. Even then, in terms of spending, it’s still behind countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark and only slightly above Germany’s, according to Paul Johnson of the IFS.
Frankie
Still a bit too exotic engage with you.
@ Frank West,
“With huge sums of govn money being thrown around…… rates of pay will be hugely inflated”
You seem, initially, to have grasped the point I often make. ie That there is a danger that too much govt spending will produce too much inflation. Indeed that is the ONLY danger.
But then you seem to relapse into bad old ways with:
“…these new govn assets will be overvalued and if we are lucky worth half what they cost.”
The point about inflation is that it isn’t just wages that rise. Prices, including asset prices, will rise too. If that happens they’ll be “worth” more than they cost but that probably won’t be a good thing!
PS I’m not saying that wages don’t need to rise but if the evidence is that rising wages is also causing rising prices, as we saw in the 70s, then we will need to reassess the situation.
Why is it that political parties continue to make statements that they they cannot deliver? They do it because they believe they can get away with it or that the present advantages are greater than the disadvantages if they occur. We need a more informed electorate that questions even their own Parties’ statements and gives time for rebuttals and counter statements to be aired.