Greens launch local election campaign with focus on housing

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has attacked the government's record on building affordable and social housing at his party's local election campaign launch.

Speaking in Lewisham, south-east London, where the Greens are hoping to make gains, Polanski also called for rent controls to be introduced in the capital.

The party's recent Westminster win in the Gorton and Denton by-election has given Green campaigners a boost, with Labour pushed into third place behind Reform UK.

Polanski told supporters local elections across England would mirror this, in a fight between Greens and Reform, which he described as a "straight up battle between hope and hate".

The UK's two major parties, Labour and the Conservatives, are expected to lose ground to smaller parties in the local elections across England on 7 May.

Gorton and Denton MP Hannah Spencer's February by-election victory means the Greens now have five MPs - their highest ever number in Parliament.

The party is looking to make record gains in English councils, including in London boroughs, where they will be targeting Labour's dominance in town halls across Hackney, Lambeth, Islington and Southwark.

In his speech Polanksi accused Labour of being "in the pockets" of housing developers and prioritising luxury housing over affordable and social homes.

He told the BBC he was not anti property developer but "anti excess profits" and wanted to see a "hybrid picture" of developers, including the launch of more council-run house builders, to ensure cheaper homes are built.

"Where property developers are just taking the mickey, or just excess profiteering, as we know absolutely goes on... let's challenge that," he said.

"Ultimately houses should be built as homes and not for profits that are then sold to foreign investors where we have luxury, unaffordable buildings that no-one's living in, that's not sustainable at all."

Polanski also claimed the government had U-turned on its promise to scrap the "feudal" leasehold system "because it's more interested in pleasing property developers than freeing five million people from the financial burden of service charges".

The government argues its planned reforms will bring the leasehold system in England and Wales - where people own the right to occupy a property via a lease for a limited number of years from a freeholder - to an end.

The Green Party has pledged to abolish leasehold and introduce rent controls nationally if it gets into government.

Under the party's proposals,individual councils would be given the power to cap excessive rents for their local market and renters would be given a new right to demand energy efficiency improvements.

The party also highlighted how Green-led councils in Lewes and Mid Suffolk have built hundreds of new council homes in recent years.

However, a Labour Party spokesperson accused Green councillors of trying to block tens of thousands of new homes.

"The Greens oppose housebuilding," they said. "Where they're in power, Green councils are backing out of their housing pledges entirely."

The spokesperson added only Labour was "investing in building new homes, where they're needed", while the party had brought in the Renters' Rights Act, with a ban on Section 21 evictions and new rights for tenants.

Official government statistics estimate 342,100 net additional homes have been delivered in England between Labour being elected in July 2024, and 15 March 2026.

Polanski also used his speech to accuse Labour of being complicit in the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and criticised the government for not introducing sanctions.

He called for the UK to have "nothing to do with" the US and Israel's war in the Middle East, and said the government must do more to stop Israel behaving "like a rogue state", including withdrawing from its trade deal with Israel.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was "extremely concerned about the escalation of Israeli strikes" and the government has said it wants Lebanon to be included in the ceasefire deal.

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