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The renewed focus on council housing is thanks to Corbyn
It’s great that the wider left recognises the need for a massive wave of council house building but we mustn’t forget New Labour’s role in our current situation, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

THERE is a growing consensus on the left that we need a new wave of council house building, though there seems less understanding that this is only close to possible because of Labour’s move left.

Building 100,000 new council houses a year is now central to Labour’s manifesto.

But previous Labour leaderships — from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown to Ed Miliband — were against building more council houses. They wanted private developers to lead on housebuilding, which meant they contributed to the crisis in housing.

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