Housing Bill published - too late and too little say Liberal Democrats

4.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 15th Nov 2007

Government plans to build three million new homes before 2020 were moved forward yesterday with the publication of the housing and regeneration bill.The bill will create a new home and communities agency and will reform social housing regulation. The bill also attempts to make private sector land available for brownfield development. The new home and communities agency will oversee the delivery of the government's affordable housing targets.

Liberal Democrat Housing spokesperson Paul Holmes said "Although this Bill is welcome, it comes ten years too late. It suffers from its own crippling poverty of ambition, and contains too little on affordable housing, too little on social housing and too little on sustainable housing. The Government must empower local communities to take their own housing decisions and develop public land into affordable housing through Community Land Trusts. The Government seems content to repeat the failed mistakes of the past decade and continue the misery for millions left behind in Brown's Britain."