The sound and the fury

The Sustainable Communities Summit marks the unveiling of Labour’s five-year plan for housing and puts the issue at the heart of its general election campaign. Over the next six pages we talk to the ministers involved and ask whether, two years after its launch, the government is keeping its promises on the Communities Plan

John Prescott sweeps through the reception and disappears into his grand Whitehall office, assistants trailing in his wake. It is still only Monday morning but the deputy prime minister has a face like thunder. He is not at all happy.

Fast-forward seven days to this Monday and the Prescott on parade could not be more different. The blustering bombast is still there, of course, but this is smiling, persuasive Prezza, promising the country affordable houses. The mantra? “Homes For All”.

It doesn’t quite have the ring of the post-Second World War “Homes Fit For Heroes” slogan that it apes, but Prescott and indeed Downing Street hope that it catches on; particularly with the middle-aged, middle-England, middle-of-the road voters whose sons and daughters are struggling to get a foot on the housing ladder. The Dame Shirley Porter-inspired “Homes for Votes” tag might, perhaps, be more appropriate.

So back to the week before, away from the cameras, the speeches and the national press. Prescott is sitting in his not-overly-plush office and, for the moment at least, the thunderous look has been banished.

He is talking enthusiastically about the upcoming Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit in Manchester.

“We’ve sold 2000 tickets … all the big names are coming … we can take sustainable communities further than the Americans can with their new urbanism.” But with that, out of nowhere, the anger returns: Prescott suddenly lays into a piece in that weekend’s Daily Telegraph. I decide the best tactic is to soldier on with my next question: “Deputy prime minister, can you state for the record that Labour will not make any moves to allow housing association homes to be sold out of the social housing sector?”

I’ve said to the industry you can build a £60,000 house – the squeals came out saying you can’t. But now they say it can be done

“I make my announcements to parliament not to you,” he snaps. “I’m the one who’s developed the policy … When you get the statement to parliament, you will be able to make a judgement as to whether it is press prattle or not.”

It is pretty clear now why Prescott was so tetchy. Rumours have been rife for weeks of arguments between Prescott and Labour’s election co-ordinator Alan Milburn about the latter’s reported desire to allow housing association tenants to buy their homes. Prescott wants to ensure that what’s left of social housing is maintained and added to. Milburn – and apparently Number 10 – is keen to head off any moves by the Tories to gain ground on the issue. Perhaps the reason for Prescott’s rage when he first arrived that morning was because he had just thrashed out the compromise with Milburn over the “social homebuy” policy that was finally launched this week in Homes For All. Although it is not the right to buy, housing association tenants will ultimately still be able to buy their homes. So Milburn wins.

In the next breath, however, Prescott goes on to talk about the much-vaunted £60,000 house that was first mentioned at last September’s Labour Party conference in Brighton. It is clear that this is the mainstay of Homes For All. “The market price is almost making it impossible for people to buy houses in the medium to low income range. What I’m saying is ‘why do we pay so much for a house?’. I’ve separated the argument around land and housing and I’ve said to the industry ‘I think you can build a £60,000 house’. And the squeals came out saying you can’t. But I notice now that people are saying that it can be done. We’re now buying land on a considerable scale so I can use it in a different way, so it’s not heavy on the first-time buyer.”

In effect what this means is government regeneration agency English Partnerships taking on an even greater significance as Whitehall’s developer. It buys the land so that one of the principal reasons for high price is removed and gets housebuilders to bid to build well-designed but inexpensive housing. The idea is being piloted in London, a forerunner of the plan to build 15,000 homes on surplus public sector land.

Prescott thunders on about the second of his five-year plans, People, Places and Prosperity, to be launched at the Manchester summit. A shake-up of neighbourhood governance is on the cards – councils will remain but there could be a pivotal role for housing associations, Sure Start schemes or New Deal for Communities areas as Prescott believes they are “nurseries for democracy”. Rumour has it whole estates could be run by committees of residents as part of Labour’s drive to “give people a stake in where they live”. The deputy prime minister, however, will not be drawn. The interview is over.

We are ushered out by one of his army of assistants, and Prescott’s dark mood seems to descend once more as he settles back behind his large desk to have his photo taken. He looks up, catching my eye, and his glare harries me all the way to the door.