A Green Party leaflet circulated in Tufnell Park has raised significant concerns about the party’s approach to the housing crisis, particularly its apparent opposition to increasing the supply of homes available for private ownership.
The leaflet states: “The more privately owned units come onto the property market, the greater the negative impact will be on the value of our flats.”
The statement appears on page 2 of the leaflet, in the context of objections to new housing development and increased private housing supply.
The implication of this position is clear. It frames the delivery of new privately owned homes as a negative outcome due to its effect on existing property values. This conflicts with widely accepted evidence that increasing housing supply is essential to reducing rents, improving affordability, and enabling more people, particularly younger households, to access home ownership.
The issue is not abstract. London is facing an acute housing emergency. Around 70,000 households across the capital are currently living in temporary accommodation. In Islington alone, approximately 16,700 households are in temporary or insecure housing. Many of these households include children, with well-documented cases of families living for extended periods in single-room accommodation, hostels, or converted buildings with limited facilities.
At a time when councils are spending substantial public funds on temporary accommodation due to a lack of permanent homes, opposition to new housing supply raises serious questions about credibility on housing policy.
A London Labour source commented:
“The mask has slipped completely. When you argue that the problem with building homes is that people might actually get to own them, the plastic progressives are exposed for what they are: defenders of housing scarcity dressed up as reformers. Albert Square has a better chance of a peaceful Christmas than the Greens do of tackling the housing crisis without new homes. Zack Polanski must urgently clarify whether this is official Green Party policy. Children growing up in hostels don’t care about performance politics.”
Given the clarity of the language used in the leaflet and the severity of the housing crisis, there is now a clear need for senior Green Party figures to state whether this position reflects official party policy or a local stance taken independently. The public deserves a clear answer.