Greens to launch local campaign with plea for more affordable homes

The Green Party is to call for more affordable housing as it launches its local election campaign on Thursday.

Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey will kick off their campaign in Bristol with a focus on the housing crisis and a series of policies designed to help councils increase the supply of affordable housing.

Ms Denyer, who is also the Green parliamentary candidate in Bristol Central, said: “We desperately need a massive increase in the supply of affordable social housing.

“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 party is set to call for more funding to help councils build homes, an end to the Right to Buy and the introduction of rent controls in places where the rental market is “overheated”.

Ms Denyer added: “Councils have a vital role to play but they need a framework that supports them to provide the homes that people desperately need.

“We need to unlock the policies that will make hundreds of thousands of extra council homes available – for good. We also need a fair deal for the millions of people renting in the private sector.”

Last year’s local elections saw the Greens make significant advances, gaining 241 councillors and taking majority control of a council – Mid-Suffolk – for the first time.

There are far fewer seats up for election this year, making similar gains harder to achieve, but the party is still hopeful of adding to its 760 councillors in England, including in Bristol where the Greens are already the largest party.

The local elections on May 2 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.