In the 2016 local election, Labour Bristol ambitiously pledged that we would get the city building 2000 homes a year by 2020, at least 800 of which will be affordable. We are on track to not only meet that target, but to greatly exceed it. We have embarked on Bristol’s largest council house building project in a generation, with sites being developed across the city. We’re also being tougher on developers, holding them to account to get them to include more affordable homes in their developments.

Building more homes is only one aspect of our efforts to tackle the housing crisis. We’re also improving standards, for instance by consulting on extending licensing of rented properties. This will help to protect tenants, improve neighbourhoods, and hold bad landlords to account.

Whilst building more homes and improving standards are important ways to tackle homelessness in the long term, we’re also doing more to help those who are homeless at the moment. We’ve recommissioned the council’s homelessness services to make a more effective joined-up service. We’re also improving communication between agencies, and have increased the amount of temporary accommodation that’s available, including working with churches to open their halls during extreme cold weather.