Greens demand more affordable housing at local election campaign launch

The Greens have kicked off their local election campaign with a demand for more affordable homes.

Speaking in Bristol, co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey said a vote for Green councillors on 2 May was one for "hope and for action".

They said the country was facing an "acute housing crisis", both of supply "but also a crisis of housing quality".

The party is aiming to build on its best-ever local election results achieved last year.

They have built a powerbase in Bristol, where they are the largest party on the city council, and are aiming to win a seat there at this year's general election.

Ms Denyer, who is a member of Bristol City Council, said: "We desperately need a massive increase in the supply of affordable social housing.

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"I hear regularly from people who have been living in unacceptable conditions, crying out for a secure home or struggling to make ends meet because their rents are through the roof."

The Green Party of England and Wales is calling for more funding to help councils build homes and say they would introduce rent controls in areas where prices are high.

They also highlighted a long-standing Green policy to abolish the right for tenants to buy their social home, introduced under Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Councils and housing associations should also be given first dibs on the resale of homes bought under the Right to Buy scheme, and on other properties, such as those left empty for an unacceptably long time, the party says.

'More ambition'

The Greens are defending 107 council seats in England at 2 May's council elections.

In 2023, they had their best ever local election results, gaining an additional 240 councillors in England and winning a majority for the first time, on Mid Suffolk council.

Ms Denyer told supporters the Greens are the governing party in 10% of local authorities across England and Wales and hoped to win more in May.

She said: "When times are hard we must have more ambition not less."

In Bristol, the Greens currently have the largest number of councillors following a by-election in February last year, with one more councillor than the Labour Party's 23.

The council is led by an executive mayor, which means Labour has control of the council, but that position will be abolished in May.

Ms Denyer will also stand as the Green parliamentary candidate in Bristol Central, in a bid to unseat Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire.

The local elections will see contests in 107 councils in England along with contests for 10 mayors and 35 police and crime commissioners (PCCs), while voters in Wales will elect four PCCs.