Bristol mayor explains Labour’s election claim about affordable housing

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has explained a curious claim in Labour’s latest election manifesto that the party has “tripled affordable house building” in the city.

The boast has raised eyebrows among rival mayoral candidates, some of whom questioned its validity at recent election hustings.

It appears in the manifesto, which was launched this week, directly after another assertion by the Labour group, that “we have delivered on all of our 2016 pledges”.

A key election promise from 2016, when Rees was elected and Labour won control of Bristol City Council, was to build 2,000 homes a year, 800 of them affordable, by 2020.

Council figures clearly show the administration missed those targets, delivering 1,350 homes during their fourth year in office (2019/20), of which 312 were affordable.

Labour’s new claim that they have “tripled affordable house building” has emerged in the past few weeks as the party competes with others for popular favour ahead of local elections on May 6.

Asked what figures back up the declaration, Rees told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it referred to an increase since 2015, before he was elected mayor and Labour won a majority on the council.

But that year was one of the worst for the building of affordable homes in the eight years before Labour took power, and the trebling refers to a number that is a prediction only.

Marvin Rees and Keir Starmer visited a new housing development on Bath Road on April 8. Photo: Labour Party

In 2015/16, the final year of George Ferguson’s mayoralty, 173 affordable homes were built in Bristol, council figures show.

The council expects to deliver 530 affordable homes this year (2021/22), according to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

Rees told reporters at the online launch of Labour’s manifesto on Monday, April 19 that the party would continue its work to deliver housing and tackle homelessness if elected back into power. He sounded optimistic that the group’s new housing targets were achievable.

“We’ve got all the taps open on housing delivery,” he said.

Rees said Labour had overcome many of the structural barriers to house building during its first term, making changes within the council, shifting resources, introducing new policy and setting up a council-owned house building company, Goram Homes.

It had also endured a difficult period marked by Brexit uncertainty and an economic downturn as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

Marvin Rees’ launches the party’s 2021 manifesto. Photo: Labour Party

“It’s been a really challenging time for the sector as a whole, but I think our national and international reputation has been transformed,” he said.

“We’ve got award-winning schemes like Boklok and ZedPods and Bonnington Walk, but we’ve also had to deal with the internal dynamics within the council. We’ve dealt with those now.

“So we’re on track now to get the council up, once we come out of the Covid knock-back, to delivering 2,000 homes a year, at least 1,000 affordable.

“We’ve got to get this machine moving again, we’ve got to get past the Covid economic dip, we’re still working out what the uncertainty is around Brexit settlements.

“But what we do have now is a council machine that is already aimed towards delivering homes.

“And we’ve brought Goram Homes through which has just started moving. So Goram Homes has 2,500 homes in its pipeline now. So we’ve got all the taps open on housing delivery.”

Senior officers have previously said the council’s ability to provide affordable housing has been affected by the cyclical nature of housing development, the economy and the availability of grant funding for affordable housing.

Amanda Cameron is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.

Main photo: Marvin Campaign 2021/Lisa Whiting Photography

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