HOUSING POLICY
The Conservatives sold off council housing and under Labour the numbers being
built have fallen. As a result the number of households on council housing
waiting lists have grown by 60% since 1997. The Liberal Democrats are determined
to help existing tenants and those who want social housing by providing more
social housing to rent.
We will reduce the numbers on council waiting
lists, in unsuitable temporary accommodation, and in overcrowded homes by
investing in more social housing. We will also give tenants more control over
their homes, giving them a right to invest and a say in the management of their
estates.
Building more social
housing
We would build an additional 1 million social and low
cost homes in the next decade. This would be over an above current proposals and
greater than the numbers the government has outlined in the recent Housing Green
Paper.
The right to
buy
Liberal Democrats would retain the right to buy, allowing
councils to vary the discounts up or down according to local needs. Since 1997
four houses have been sold off under the Right to Buy for every new one built –
which means we have less social housing now than at any time since the Second
World War.
The right to
invest
We would give all tenants of councils and housing
associations a right to invest in their own homes. Under this proposal, tenants
could build up a stake in their homes. Council and housing associations could
also grant housing equity to tenants who have made substantial improvements to
their home.
Staying with the council – the
‘Fourth Option’
The Labour government’s attempts to
pressurise tenants and councils into transferring houses to registered social
landlords would end under the Liberal Democrats. We would not punish tenants if
they opt to stay with the council. We would also introduce far more choice for
council tenants over who controls their homes. Tenants opting to stay with the
council would have the opportunity to manage their own estates through an estate
board answerable to residents. They would also have the opportunity to establish
their own housing associations to take over the running of some or all of a
council’s housing stock.
A bigger say for
housing association tenants
We would give housing association
tenants a much greater say in decisions about their home and local
neighbourhood, similar to the right to manage for council tenants. Private
tenants are already set to benefit from new tenant protections campaigned for by
the Liberal Democrats and introduced in the Housing Act 2004. But the government
have failed to work closely with private sector landlords. We would drive up
service quality in the private rented sector by working with private landlords
and their representative bodies for greater professionalism.
Helping the homeless
There are also
a large numbers of hidden homeless in the UK, people living on friends’ floors,
in shared rooms, in insecure accommodation or unregistered hostels. We support a
homelessness census to discover the real extent of the homelessness
problem.
