I hope to be there, but I doubt it I'll find what she has to say 'right up my street'.
Ed Miliband was writing about this in the Standard yesterday, and my overall impression was the the Labour Party was at least being quicker off the mark than the other parties in admitting there was a problem. The danger is that they will push through housing which is less well planned than it could be, and not in the right places. There's also a danger they will go after landlords, channelling popular anger towards them, which could prove counterproductive. It's tempting to believe that if only we could use the existing housing stock more efficiently, things would be ok. This is what I used to think, but I don't think it's realistic. When I've look up the numbers previously, the number of empy properties in London is about what you'd expect from properties being empty between occupancies, and is anyway dwarfed by the numbers of people looking to move into their own homes.
It will be interesting to get a feel for what others at the meeting say, and what sort of discussion goes on about this within the local Labour Party, one of whose members it was who sent me this notice.
