A City for the Rich or the Poor? Labour's housing policy puts our Key Workers at risk

A group of five smiling healthcare professionals in scrubs and white coats stand together in a hallway, with a woman in front wearing a stethoscope around her neck

Westminster Council's Conservative Group Leader Cllr Paul Swaddle is calling on Labour-run Westminster Council to have more housing in Westminster for our essential key workers, including teachers, nurses and police officers. If the Conservatives are running the Council after May's elections, Paul commits to protecting and increasing the number of homes available for our key workers.

Paul explains

I've always believed that Westminster should be a balanced city, a place where people from all walks of life can live and thrive. This is why the previous Conservative administration had a clear housing policy to reflect this: 60% of new housing was for intermediate and key workers, and 40% was for social rent. It was a common-sense approach, fully in line with the London Plan, and designed to create a mixed-income community where our key workers, including teachers, nurses, and police officers, can afford to live.

But since taking control in 2022, Labour has been quietly dismantling this balance. Through their City Plan Partial Review, they are deliberately shifting the policy to a 70% social rent / 30% intermediate split.

What does this mean for our communities? It means fewer homes for those on a middle income. It means our essential key workers, who can't afford market rent in Westminster, will be forced out.

This is a disastrous strategy. It's creating a two-tier city where you have to be either very rich or on a very low income to live here. It's pushing Westminster towards an extreme and polarised future.

I know how much my team and I achieved in our time running the council. The major housing schemes being delivered today, such as 300 Harrow Road and Ebury Bridge, are projects that were planned and commissioned by us. Yet, even on these schemes, Labour is actively reducing the very element that makes a city diverse and balanced.

My pledge is clear. If the Conservatives are returned to run Westminster, we will immediately redress this balance. 

We will fight to protect and increase the number of homes available for our key workers.

Westminster should be a home for everyone who contributes to its success. We will not allow Labour's policies to turn it into a city of extremes.

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