Liberal Democrat Conference backs plans to build 1.3 million new social houses

11.30.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 9th Mar 2008

The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference today backed measures to build 1.3 million new social homes over the next ten years.

The plans aim to greatly reduce the waiting list for social housing which currently stands at over 1.6m, up nearly 60% since 1997.

Other main proposals include:

· Invest all the proceeds from council house sales in building more social homes

· End the system of 'negative subsidy' where council tenants subsidise maintenance costs in other parts of the country

· Support Government-backed equity mortgages to help first time buyers get on the housing ladder.

· Pilot Community Land Auctions to ensure that local people get the benefits of new development through improved infrastructure

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Housing Minister, Lembit Öpik said:

"We must build faster and better with at least one million new affordable homes in the next ten years to solve Britain's housing crisis.

"Successive governments have let social housing crumble. There are almost one million fewer social houses available now than during the last housing market crash.

"Without this crucial safety net, what will happen to the 45,000 families expected to have their homes repossessed this year?

"The Liberal Democrat proposals will help families into homes that they can afford in communities that are sustainable."

The full text of the motion is copied below:

Conference notes with concern that:

i) The number of families on social housing waiting lists has risen from one million ten years ago to 1.63 million.

ii) 93,980 families are registered as homeless by local authorities.

iii) Homes sold under Right to Buy have not been replaced so that the number of homes available for social rent has fallen from 4.39 million in 1997 to 3.98 million.

Conference believes that:

A. Every family should live in an affordable and sustainable home.

B. In order to meet current and future housing needs, more affordable housing needs to be built than the Government is currently proposing, increasing the proportion of homes available for social rent and intermediate sale.

Conference recognises that housing market conditions vary across the country and therefore accepts that there is no single solution which will work for all local authorities.

Conference therefore proposes a range of provisions which will give local authorities the powers they need to tackle housing problems in their area.

In addition to the policies contained in the conference motion Sustainable Housing (March 2007) and Policy Paper 69, Affordable Housing in Safer, Greener Communities (2005), and alongside the projected 130,000 open market homes which will be built each year, Conference therefore calls for:

1. 1.3 million new homes to be built within 10 years, one half for the 'affordable' intermediate sales market and one half available for social rent, with the 'affordability' of intermediate market homes being retained when the property is sold, rather than lost after the first resale.

2. Local authorities to be enabled to increase their stock of social and private housing by:

a) Allowing them to re-invest all the proceeds from right-to-buy sales into new social housing, with no net loss of homes due to sales and with replacement social housing integrated into mixed developments to diversify housing stock.

b) Extending the scope for local authorities to capture more of the rise in land value when planning permission is granted, by encouraging tariff-based systems for planning, so that developers pay a proportionate contribution towards infrastructure development.

c) Allowing local authorities to pilot 'Community Land Auctions'; planning authorities taking part in a pilot would have the right to designate the whole, or part, of their area as suitable for 'Community Land Auctions', not to replace the current Local Plan system but to allow authorities to mediate a process of auction which will capture, for investment in community infrastructure, much of the rise in the value of the land when planning permissions is granted.

d) Introducing the 'Fourth Option' for the management of social housing, putting local authorities on a level playing field with social landlords when refurbishing housing stock.

e) Ring-fencing Housing Revenue Account capital receipts and rental income for local investment.

3. Not-for-profit companies to be encouraged to develop mixed-tenure developments funded by private finance.

4. A new equity mortgage scheme, supported by government, to replace the existing jumble of confusing and ineffective schemes to promote wider, low-cost home ownership