Child Homelessness Figures Branded ‘Shameful’ Under Tory Government

The rise in child homelessness figures under a Conservative government is ‘shameful’, according to Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Housing, Tim Farron. As reported by 24housing, 135,000 children in Britain are homeless and living in temporary accommodation – the highest figure in 12 years, according to a report by Shelter. The report also highlighted the 5,683 homeless families with children currently living in emergency B&Bs and hostels – with some London boroughs seeing every one in 12 children as homeless. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/child-homelessness-figures-branded-shameful-under-tory-government/

Lib Dems Propose New Help To Rent Scheme

Rent controls and an increased investment in social housing have been proposed in the Liberal Democrat election manifesto. Overseeing a ‘substantial building programme’, plans include that of building 100,000 homes for social rent each year, helping to ensure the current demand of 300,000 homes is met. A full reform of the private rented sector is also outlined, with a focus on helping young people into the rental market by establishing a new Help to Rent scheme to provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/lib-dems-propose-new-help-to-rent-scheme-ahead-of-election/

Lib Dems Propose Land-Buying Agency To Boost House Building

Vince Cable has proposed a state-backed agency to compulsorily purchase land for building and call for measures to allow construction on some green belt sites.  In a speech at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, the Liberal Democrat leader also proposed a big expansion in rent-to-own, where some people in new developments could pay a market rent in exchange for a gradual stake in the property, thereby subsidising social rents. The speech in response to the housing crisis comes as the government announced £1.67bn in funding for 23,000 affordable homes across England, including 15,000 for social rent. The funding is part of a previous commitment of up to £9bn for affordable housing. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/26/lib-dems-vince-cable-land-buying-agency-to-boost-house-building

Right To Buy ‘Devastating’ Social Housing Stock, New Figures Reveal

Council homes are being sold off almost three times faster than local authorities can replace them. Freedom of Information requests to 72 councils found more than 12,000 council houses have been sold off since 2014, to a cost of over £930m, while only 4,309 were built over the same time period. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron — whose party issued the FoI requests — said  ‘The Government talked a lot about replacing council housing one for one but this has been shown to be utter fantasy.’ A spokesman from the CLG denied the Government promised to replace every Right to Buy sale. They said it was ‘only additional sales’ above the original forecasted baseline that should be replaced one for one, adding it was up to councils to use the receipts from Right to Buy sales for new homes. Download the latest RTB figures from the Gov.UK website.

Lib Dems Unveil 'Rent To Buy' Pledge For First Time Homeowners

Tens of thousands of young renters will be offered “rent to buy” deposit-free homes as part of a Liberal Democrat manifesto aimed at enticing a younger generation to back the party. The announcement is the flagship policy among a number of reforms aimed at attracting younger voters, also those most likely to be receptive to the party’s hard remain message and a promise of a referendum on the final Brexit deal to allow voters to opt to stay in the EU. Under the “rent to buy” pledge, young professionals and working families unable to afford a home would be able to buy their first home for the same cost as renting, with each monthly payment steadily buying a share in the home. Read more on the Guardian website.

Liberal Democrats Back More Build To Rent

A Liberal Democrat spokesman has outlined his party’s support for a range of private rental initiatives including Build To Rent and the proliferation on online reviews about properties available to let. Lord Shipley says Lib Dems “want a rental market that is fair for tenants and fair for landlords” - but that allows responsible landlords to run their businesses as they wish.  “So whilst we can and should take all possible steps to ensure that tenants are well-treated by their landlords and that the houses they rent are of appropriate standard, we must also make sure that landlords don’t get taken for a ride by their tenants” he writes.  Read more on the Letting Agent Today website.

35,000 People Sit On Waiting Lists For 10 YEARS

Tens of thousands of people have been on social housing waiting lists for a decade. Research shows at least 104,000 people in Britain have been on waiting lists for council-owned or “arm’s length run” homes, such as in housing associations, for five years. At least 35,000 have been on the same waiting lists for 10 years. Officials insisted not all were in urgent need - but town hall chiefs warned the Mirror of a “crisis” and called for urgent action from the Tory government. The research was compiled by the Liberal Democrats from 158 councils, so the total from all councils is likely to be higher. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

10-Year Wait For A Council House

At least 104,000 people in Britain have been on waiting lists for council-owned or ALMO homes, and at least 35,000 have been on the same waiting lists for 10 years. The research was compiled by the Liberal Democrats from 158 councils. It comes after one of Britain’s richest boroughs – where some face waiting 25 years for a four-bed social home – announced new plans to move homeless families out of the capital. Westminster City Council, which has had 779 people on waiting lists for a decade, admitted it must make ‘difficult choices’ to cut spiralling spending on temporary accommodation. Read more on 24housing.

Lib Dem Peers Will Try To Block Tory 'Pay To Stay' Plan

Liberal Democrats say they will use the House of Lords to try to block a number of measures in the government's controversial Housing and Planning Bill, which will soon enter the House of Lords for its final stages before, if passed, coming into law. "The housing bill is riddled with holes and unfairness," Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said. "The government has clearly drafted a bill without consulting anyone who has lived in or experienced the realities of social housing. Social housing is a lifeline for thousands of people and the Conservatives seem driven by ideological dogma to sell off these homes. The prime minister used to be vocal in his support for social housing. His actions show now that he was merely paying lip service." Read more on the International Business Times website.

Lib Dems Fight For An Open Register Of Rogue Landlords

Liberal Democrats are fighting to ensure potential renters have access to lists of rogue landlords. An amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill, which would make it possible for tenants to check whether their landlord was on lists held by local authorities, was rejected by the government in the Lords. Liberal Democrat Peers will continue to push an amendment to the Bill at a later stage on this vital Freedom of Information issue.  Read more on 24dash.

Labour And Lib Dems Slam Right To Buy Deal

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have hit out at the ‘backroom deal’ between housing associations and the government to extend the Right to Buy without legislation. John Healey, Labour’s shadow housing minister, has said the government is negotiating housing associations to make the Right to Buy voluntary because ministers “can’t deliver it themselves”. Following the announcement that associations will vote on whether to take on the scheme voluntarily, Mr Healey said: “This is a clear sign of a government running into trouble with their flagship election policy. It looks like ministers are trying to strike a backroom deal with housing association landlords to deliver a policy which they fear they can’t deliver themselves.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Lib Dems To Use House Of Lords Majority – To Defeat Moves To Extend Right To Buy

The Liberal Democrats will use their strength as part of an anti-Tory majority in the House of Lords to defeat the Government’s moves to sell off housing-association properties. After losing all but eight of its MPs at the general election, the party will switch its Parliamentary campaigning focus to the Lords as it attempts to block a range of contentious legislation. The tactic will enrage the Conservatives, who won a narrow overall Commons majority in May but are vastly outnumbered in the unelected Lords, with 223 peers compared with 211 for Labour and 101 for the Liberal Democrats. In his first conference speech as leader, Mr Farron will commit the party to exploiting its large presence in the Lords to scupper the housing sell-off. Read more on the Independent website.

First Time Buyers Support Help to Buy Schemes

The housing policies of the Conservative Party seem to be most in-tune with the needs of first time buyers, particularly Help to Buy according to new research.  Getting empty homes back in to the market has strong support but this was planned by the Liberal Democrats who are no longer in coalition with the Conservatives, says the Halifax Generation Rent report. Increasing the supply of housing was the overall mandate given to the incoming Government by Generation Rent participants. All pledges to build more homes and to either reserve a proportion of these homes or offer them all to first time buyers were welcomed by the majority of respondents. Read more on the Property Wire website.

Lib Dems to Give Local Authorities Power To Double Council Tax on Second Homes

The Liberal Democrats are proposing to give local authorities the power to double council tax on second homes in a bid to stop houses becoming too expensive for local people. The announcement comes as part of a package of measures in the party’s countryside charter, which commits the Lib Dems to “closing the gap” between rural and urban areas in the availability of high-speed broadband and extending the 5p per litre discount on fuel to more remote areas. A spokesperson for the party denied that the plans were an attack on those with holiday homes, arguing that local government in areas popular with second home owners had been crying out for such a measure for years. Read more on the Guardian website.

Lib Dems Set Out a Help to Rent Scheme For Young People

The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to provide government loans for tenancy deposits to help young people to rent their first home. The party’s proposed “help to rent” scheme would allow people aged 18 to 30 to borrow up to £1,500 (£2,000 in London) from the government to use as a deposit on rented accommodation. The loans would be repaid over a period of either 12 or 24 months. The party says many young people are struggling to save deposits to rent without help from family members, forcing them to live with their parents for longer. The average rental deposit in the UK is £1,200, usually six weeks of rent. Read more on the Property Wire website.

MPs Baffled By 'Revenge Evictions' Figures

More should be done to establish the scale of so-called ‘revenge evictions’ before legislation is brought in to tackle the problem, a group of MPs has said. Lib Dem peers have since proposed realising the plans by including them as an amendment to the Deregulation Bill currently being debated in the Lords. But a new report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Private Rented Sector claims that without more evidence it’s still not clear whether legislation is “necessarily the best tool” to tackle the problem. The report reads: “Too often on private rented housing it has become very easy to call for greater regulations here or there without a proper assessment of what is and isn’t working." Read more on 24dash.

Amendment to Deregulation Bill Picks Up Retaliatory Evictions 'Baton'

Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords have tabled an amendment on the Deregulation Bill with the aim of preventing retaliatory evictions, following the defeat of the party’s Tenancies (Reform) Bill. Lib Dem Peers signed the amendment to the Deregulation Bill which, if passed, would:

·         Give six months protection for victims of revenge evictions and for renters living in homes so poor, the council has intervened.

·         Put in place key safeguards and exemptions for law-abiding landlords.

The Deregulation Bill will return to the House of Lords in mid January. Read more on Inside Housing.

Cable Warns Of Inequalities Caused By Housing Market Crisis

Vince Cable has warned of deepening inequality between social classes and the generations because of a fundamental crisis in the housing market fuelled by George Osborne’s Help to Buy and Right to Buy policies.  The Lib Dem business secretary said the crux of the problem was a shortage of social housing, which the government had failed to replace while offering people incentives to buy their council homes. The party’s conference in Glasgow passed a motion to give local authorities the ability to suspend Right to Buy in their areas, on the grounds that council tenants were being given huge incentives to purchase their homes without enough replacement of social housing stock. Read more on the Guardian website.

Lib Dems Vote against Scrapping Bedroom Tax

Liberal Democrat members have voted overwhelmingly against pledging to scrap the bedroom tax outright. The party’s manifesto will promise to reform the policy so it only applies to those who have turned down a suitable offer of alternative accommodation, with blanket exemptions for some disabled people.  But an amendment to scrap the benefit reduction outright for both social housing and private sector tenants was rejected by members at the manifesto debate at the party conference in Glasgow. Read more on Inside Housing.

Lib Dems Call for Councils to Be Able To Suspend Right to Buy

The president of the Liberal Democrats has called on the housing minister to give councils the power to suspend the right to buy policy. Fresh on the heels of fellow Lib Dem MP Andrew George's successful private member's bill to amend the bedroom tax, Tim Farron said "in the true spirit of localism" Brandon Lewis should give local authorities the power to protect their existing stock. Figures from the CLG showed that 2,845 social homes were sold off under the right to buy scheme during April to June this year (2014-15's Quarter 1). The figure represents a 31% increase in sales compared with the same period in 2013-14's Q1, when 2,171 state-owned homes were sold off to private buyers. Read more on 24dash.