Jeremy Corbyn in Shropshire: Government failing on rural crime and homelessness

He also said there needed to be more investment in the transport systems in areas such as Shropshire, particularly with regard to more buses.

His visit to Harper Adams University in Edgmond, near Newport, was his second visit to the county in as many days, having also called in to Coalbrookdale on Monday.

Mr Corbyn said rural areas such as Shropshire were now seeing crimes which were once the preserve of the inner-cities.

"Knife crime and weapons offences are now increasingly affecting rural areas, which in the past were shielded from that kind of crime.

"A lot of the crimes you are seeing in rural areas now are similar to what we are dealing with in areas like my constituency in north London."

His comments come after sturdy by NFU Mutual revealed that the cost of rural crime in Shropshire had increased by 51.5 per cent over the past 12 months.

A separate study also revealed that 69 per cent of farmers and other rural businesses had suffered from crime in the past 12 months.

"The loss of so many local police officers and local support staff meant the relationship they used to have with the communities isn't there any more.

"Also, response times have suffered because the nature of rural areas."

Homelessness

Mr Corbyn said he believed the Government had failed to recognise the scale of the problem with homelessness following concerns about a growing number of rough sleepers in the county, particularly in Shrewsbury.

The Government yesterday announced a £100 million package which it said should end rough sleeping by 2027, but Mr Corbyn said that did not go nearly far enough.

"That is inadequate," he said.

"I don't think the Government is fully aware of the scale of the problem.

"We propose there should be the immediate provision of 8,000 homes across England for rough sleepers.

"We also need to build more homes, particularly for people who are unable to find suitable homes in the communities they have grown up in."

Mr Corbyn said the introduction of Universal Credit would add to the problem.

He also accused cash-strapped local authorities of hiding behind rules which meant they did not have to house people who were deemed to be voluntarily homeless.

"Many issues, including alcohol and drug addiction, need far more help and support, and that help and support must be freely available.

"There are many wonderful charities that do this, including Crisis and Shelter which do great work, but it really has to be given statutory resourcing, and be available to everybody."

Transport

Mr Corbyn, who grew up in nearby Pave Lane and was a pupil at Castle House prep school and Adams Grammar School, said he was delighted to be back on home turf, and had many happy memories of cycling around the area.

But he said he was increasingly concerned about a lack of public transport in the area.

"Yes, I want to take the railways into public ownership, but there are three times as many bus users as there are train passengers," Mr Corbyn added.

"When I grew up around here there was about an hourly bus service from Edgmond, now it's nothing like that."

Housing

Mr Corbyn re-stated his commitment to penalising property developers which deliberately sat on parcels of land which had been earmaked for housing to keep prices high.

He said a future Labour government would set up an organisation known as the English Sovereign Land Trust which would have the power to compulsorily purchase land which had been given planning permission for housing at a knock-down price.

Instead of paying the market value as a housing site, the trust would be able to purchase it for its value before planning permission had been granted.

The land would then be used to build council homes.

When asked whether this would hit pension funds which invested in many such plots of land, he replied:

"We're not trying to damage pension funds, but it is not right that these plots are held as as a land bank when they have been given planning permission to develop for housing.

"We have a housing crisis, and we want to make sure more houses are built."

During the visit, Mr Corbyn also said former Mayor of Shrewsbury Councillor Ioan Jones could be expelled from the Labour Party if allegations of anti-Semitism were proven to be correct.

At the moment he is being investigated by the Labour Party over claims that he shared anti-Semitic material on Facebook.

Councillor Jones is alleged to have posted material comparing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler.