The Deputy Prime Minister has told the Labour conference “now is our moment” as she pledged to bolster workers rights, create high quality homes and strengthen communities.
Ms Rayner, who is also the Housing and Local Government Secretary, outlined her department’s priorities in Government in her opening speech to the Conference delegation in Liverpool.
She described the Government’s Employment Rights Bill, which will face Parliament next month, as “historic legislation” that will “make work more secure” and “ensure rights are enforced and trade unions strengthened”.
She said: “That means repealing the Tories’ anti-worker laws and new rights for union reps too.
“A genuine living wage and sick pay for the lowest earners. Banning exploitative zero hour contracts and unpaid internships. Ending fire and rehire and we will bring in basic rights from day one on the job.
“Conference, this is our Plan to Make Work Pay – coming to a workplace near you.”
She vowed to “rebalance” the tenant-landlord relationship, and described working on the Grenfell inquiry as “the most sobering moment” of her career.
She told delegates: “Our renters’ bill will rebalance the relationship between tenant and landlord and end no fault evictions – for good.
“Our long-term plan will free leaseholders from the tyranny of a medieval system.
“And a cross-government taskforce will put Britain back on track to ending homelessness.
“Whether you’re a leaseholder, a tenant, a home-buyer or without somewhere to live – this Government is on your side.”
She added: “It is completely unacceptable that we have thousands of buildings still wrapped in unsafe cladding seven years after Grenfell.
“And that’s why we will bring forward a new remediation action plan this autumn to speed up the process and we’ll pursue those responsible – without fear or favour.
“This must lead to new, safer social housing for the future.
“Under the Tories, new social housing plummeted. We will reverse that tide with an ambition to build more social homes than we lose, within the first financial year of this Labour Government.”
The Housing Secretary further pledged to implement Awabs law in the social rented sector in the autumn and to extend it to the private rented sector.
Awaab’s law is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died as a direct result of exposure to mould in the social home his family rented in Rochdale.
Labour estimates it would support tenants in 746,000 homes with reported serious hazards to secure faster repairs, reducing health and safety risks.
Finally Ms Rayner outlined further plans for the “devolution revolution” as she pledged to end “northerners being dictated to by Whitehall”.
She said: “Keir and I are determined to end this ‘Whitehall knows best’ approach and trust those with skin in the game.
“The last Labour Government created the London Mayor, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
“We will seize this moment and finally complete that irreversible shift in opportunity, power and wealth across our whole country.
“It’s how we can deliver real, sustained change for every region and Labour mayors have already proven it.
“Buses under local control in Greater Manchester, £2 fares in West Yorkshire, Oxford Street regeneration in London, publicly-owned battery trains in Liverpool and opportunities for unemployed young people in the West Midlands.
“Labour mayors have shown what is possible when Labour is in power and that’s why I am giving mayors more powers over house building and planning, as well as transport and skills.
“A new White Paper will map out how we will move power out of Whitehall.”
The Deputy Prime Minister concluded her speech talking about her previous job in care and with a call to action for the conference.
She said: “Retired professors, teachers, nurses, police officers, they needed my care in the last years and days of their life, care that they deserved. Care that was my honour to provide.
“I find myself once again with an opportunity to serve those people who never gave up on me. On the fourth of July, the people entrusted us with the task of change and hope won. Now is our moment, not just to say, but to do.
“Labour governments of the past took on this same challenge at a time when Britain desperately needed change. They deserved a better Britain, when the odds were stacked against them, and that’s exactly what this Labour government must deliver once again, so, conference, let’s go.”