Tag Archives: housing

Don Foster MP writes… Local communities say ‘Yes’ to locally-led housebuilding

By Don Foster MP | Wed 8th May 2013 - 3:55 pm

Amid all the excitement of the local elections, two results of polls on the same day may have passed you by. While in many parts of the country voters were electing local councillors, in Thame in Oxfordshire and in the St.James area of Exeter voters were deciding whether to accept or reject locally developed Neighbourhood Plans.

Like many Liberal Democrats I was anxious to see how well we did in the council elections. But as Minister with responsibility for “localism”, I was also keeping a close eye on these Neighbourhood Plan referenda.

After all Neighbourhood Planning is part of …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged localism and neighbourhood plan | 7 Comments

Large supermarkets are hoarding good housing land

By Mary Reid | Tue 16th April 2013 - 2:31 pm

A large site which has been earmarked by a council for residential housing, but owned by a major supermarket chain, has been lying derelict for 11 years. At a time of pressing housing need, this is a scandal.

Perhaps you know of similar cases to my story. If so, share them in the comments. Does anyone know how much land is being hoarded in this way?

In 2002 Tesco bought a redundant Ministry of Defence site in Tolworth, which lies within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in the southwest corner of Greater …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured and Supermarkets | 14 Comments

Don Foster MP writes… Housing at the heart of the Budget

By Don Foster MP | Thu 21st March 2013 - 3:18 pm

House building fell dramatically following the financial crisis and hasn’t yet fully recovered. Last year 118,900 new homes were built in England. But with the number of households predicted to grow by 232,000 a year for the next 20 years and thousands currently unable to get onto the housing ladder, we need to build more than double that each year to keep up with demand, but we also need to tackle the sluggish housing market. That’s why housing was at the heart of the Budget yesterday, with more help for first time buyers and more money for affordable homes.

The …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged affordable housing, budget 2013, build to rent, firstbuy, green deal and help to buy | 35 Comments

Opinion: The ‘Bedroom Tax’ does not pass the Fairer Society test

By John Coburn | Tue 19th March 2013 - 4:32 pm

The leadership’s positioning over secret courts has angered many of the party faithful over the past week, but for me the major disappointment has been our uncritical support of the Tory inspired ‘spare bedroom subsidy’ policy or how I think more accurately describes it – the ‘bedroom tax’. Our leader Nick Clegg used the provocative ‘spare bedroom subsidy’ term in a Q&A session at last week’s Spring Conference, and it has been repeated by senior Lib Dems including Mike German on Newsnight in the days following.

The policy, which is part of the government’s welfare reform package, will cut the amount …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bedroom tax | 48 Comments

Stephen Knight AM writes…Invest now in affordable housing for jobs and growth

By Stephen Knight | Thu 14th March 2013 - 9:32 am

Vince Cable is right to argue that the government should give the economy a fiscal stimulus with increased borrowing to fund infrastructure investment, especially affordable home building. Cable’s argument is sound: the finance is cheap, the multiplier in this kind of investment is relatively large and there is an urgent need to give our flat-lining economy a kick-start.

Investment in affordable housing would provide particular economic benefits in London and the south east, where the shortage of affordable homes is undeniably the single biggest break on the region’s economy.

The UK’s construction industry has massive spare capacity, having shrunk significantly in the …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | 13 Comments

“Bedroom Tax” – should social landlords be doing more to encourage swaps?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 20th February 2013 - 9:36 am

The “bedroom tax” which is not actually a tax, but a cut in Housing Benefit if a tenant in social housing has more bedrooms than they are deemed to need, has caused much anxiety and disquiet in recent weeks. Its introduction in April means that tenants in social housing will need to find around £60 a month on already hard-pressed budgets. If they are unable to pay the extra, then they face eviction. Even ifsocial landlords decide not to evict and merely to pursue rent arrears, the stress of that debt and its impact on a family’s ability to keep …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bedroom tax and willie rennie | 69 Comments

Don Foster MP writes… Report back on planning changes

By Don Foster MP | Tue 12th February 2013 - 2:23 pm

I thought it was about time that I report back on the work I’ve been doing on planning since we debated it at Conference in September last year.

I’m pleased to be able to say that we’ve made some real progress. Particularly on the Section 106 ‘holiday’ announcement made in the September 6 growth and housing announcement, I’ve been able to deliver everything my local government colleagues asked:

Firstly, where a developer wants to renegotiate the affordable housing element of a Section 106 agreement to unblock a development, we wanted to make sure that there’s an objective test in place to check whether it’s necessary.

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged planning | 22 Comments

Independent View: Why a national approach will not resolve the UK’s housing crisis

By Ben Harrison | Tue 22nd January 2013 - 12:34 pm

Britain is in the midst of a housing crisis. For many people, soaring house prices mean that the notion of owning their own home is not a realistic prospect.

Decades of failed housing policies mean we are currently building around 100,000 fewer homes than required to keep pace with demand each year. Our latest report, Cities Outlook 2013, sponsored by the Local Government Association, shows that only by putting place back into housing policy can we provide a much needed boost to the UK economy, and take a big step towards resolving this crisis over the long term.

Continue reading »

Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged centre for cities | 14 Comments

The rise of the private renters continues

By Mark Pack | Wed 12th December 2012 - 6:50 am

Back in the summer I wrote about how:

You can fight through a bulging email folder of press releases from politicians wanting to make mortgages easier, cheaper, safer and more numerous before you find one that talks about tackling any of the issues private renters face…

It is notable that the rising trend of private renting and declining numbers of those with a mortgage pre-date the financial crash. In fact, the crash has not caused much of a blip in the trends.

Continue reading »

Posted in News | 4 Comments

Nick Clegg’s fourth Letter from the Leader: “The only way out of the housing crisis is to build our way out.”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 25th November 2012 - 1:15 pm

Here’s Nick Clegg’s latest missive to Lib Dem members and supporters — this week focusing on his efforts to get Britain building again to help those households in need of decent, affordable housing…

I’m writing this as we come to the end of an incredibly hectic week in politics.

The negotiations over the budget in Europe, securing of a much needed ceasefire in Gaza, rising speculation about the upcoming Leveson report. And Ed Davey’s important announcement of a landmark coalition deal on low carbon energy that will deliver

…

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged featured, letter from the leader and nick clegg | 12 Comments

Opinion: We need all parties to work together to solve London’s housing crisis

By Joe Bourke | Wed 21st November 2012 - 1:36 pm

Sarah Teather’s recent interview in the Observer graphically reminded us of the social impact of the housing crisis on large numbers low and moderate earners in London.

Vince Cable, on the Andrew Marr show, emphasised both the need to counter the tabloid rhetoric of benefit scroungers and restrain the growth in the welfare budget. Vince pointed to the urgent need to expand the provision of affordable housing in the …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged darren johnson and london | 19 Comments

Opinion: Housing – winding the clock back

By Alex Marsh | Mon 12th November 2012 - 2:53 pm

Friday 9th November 2012 could well come to be seen as a landmark date in the history of English housing policy. A key change introduced by the Localism Act 2011 came into effect. The Liberal Democrats are part of the Government presiding over the change. Is it a change we can be proud of?

Local authorities can now discharge their statutory homelessness duty by allocating households a tenancy in the private rented sector rather than in social housing. This has been an option for years. But until now to

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged homelessness | 9 Comments

Opinion: Mr Quelch muscles in on localism

By Andy Boddington | Tue 23rd October 2012 - 3:50 pm

“Fellows near Mr. Quelch’s study window heard a sound from within—the rhythmic sound of a cane on trousers.”

Just who, I wondered, as I watched the House of Commons Select Committee hearing held last week, does the speaker remind me of? Then, as he spoke about using sticks against the laggards, an image from decades ago slipped into my mind.

Oh crikey! I realised that am listening to Mr Quelch, the merciless form master who beat Billy Bunter and his ill-behaved companions at Greyfriars with jolly regularity in the weekly Magnet. I swear that Nick Boles is Quelch reincarnated.

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged Clive Betts, mark prisk and nick boles | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Landlord licensing will not stop the criminals

By Richard Lambert | Mon 17th September 2012 - 1:24 pm

The National Landlords Association (NLA) is a membership organisation representing over 20,000 individuals and companies, letting privately rented residential property. The NLA provides advice to help landlords run their businesses for themselves and their tenants. Like anyone else, landlords like satisfied customers and repeat business.

The private-rented sector has grown from a low point of eight per cent of households in 1990 to over 17 per cent today, matching the social housing sector. This growth has accelerated in recent years, due to the combined effects of …

Continue reading »

Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged landlords | 13 Comments

Opinion: Should we regulate all private landlords – over to you, conference

By Emily Davey | Fri 7th September 2012 - 9:45 am

The party’s housing working group has looked at the laws around the private rented sector. We had a choice of whether we regulate: no private landlords, or some private landlords or all private landlords. The party’s housing working group rejected the deregulation option. But we didn’t reach agreement on whether we should regulate some landlords, targeting landlords with more vulnerable tenants, or regulate all 1 million private landlords. It will be for conference to decide.

Large houses in multiple occupation (HMO), e.g. student houses, have always been regulated because HMO tenants have always been seen to be at a greater risk of harm. The Housing Act 2004 increased the regulation introducing licensing which covers both the state of the property and the ability of the landlord to manage the property. The Housing Act 2004 also enabled councils to introduce targeted licensing (Selective or Additional licensing) but only in areas subject to anti-social behaviour or low housing demand.

Continue reading »

Posted in Conference, News and Op-eds | Also tagged housing act 2004, landlords, licensing and tenants | 32 Comments

Tim Leunig writes… Housing priority Number 1: reversing the rise in the age of first-time buyers

By Tim Leunig | Sun 26th August 2012 - 2:15 pm

Sir Adrian Montague’s report on housing, published earlier this week, calls for a larger private rented sector. This is a very bad idea because being a private renter is the least popular tenure choice in Britain. Only 2% of people wish to be private renters, compared with 82% who want to own, 14% who want to live in social housing, and 5% in other tenures (see here for details). I bet that Sir Adrian is not a private renter.

The private rented sector has its place, most notably for young people who have yet to settle down. But thanks …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged adrian montague | 39 Comments

Lib Dems publish plan for 300,000 homes to be built a year

By Mark Pack | Thu 16th August 2012 - 12:44 pm

I’ve talked a few times about how housing has become an increasingly important policy in the rhetoric of Liberal Democrat ministers (see Danny Alexander set to up the ante on anti-Tory rhetoric and housing and Vince Cable on “one of the great acts of economic vandalism in modern times”).

Whether or not that rhetoric will produce policy results is the big question.

At which point, enter stage left a policy motion in the agenda for next month’s Liberal Democrat conference:

Continue reading »

Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged featured and richard kemp | 47 Comments

Opinion: Understanding the housing policy buzz

By Paul Reynolds | Tue 14th August 2012 - 4:52 pm

It has been widely suggested that a government-engineered housebuilding boom may end the recession and bring electoral success to the Tories or LibDems in 2015 (depending on who gets the credit for it). Experts have been scrambling to answer the question of why there is such a shortage of housing, what the obstacles to housebuilding really are.

The Coalition government has so far focused on schemes to help first time buyers and provide housebuilders with finance. These approaches tend to assume that the major obstacle to expanded housebuilding is lack of loan finance due to a banking system still in …

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged planning | 79 Comments

Opinion: Is this the start of Plan A+?

By Adam Corlett | Sun 12th August 2012 - 9:25 am

It looks like the coming months will see new initiatives to boost the economy, following the second quarter contraction (now revised up slightly to -0.5%) and a record trade deficit.

As The Spectator reports,

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david cameron, economy, ed miliband, eric pickles, george osborne and nick clegg | 4 Comments

Danny Alexander set to up the ante on anti-Tory rhetoric and housing

By Mark Pack | Sat 11th August 2012 - 12:52 pm

One of the best speeches given by a Liberal Democrat Cabinet Member in the last year was Danny Alexander’s to the GMB conference. It was not only a good speech, it went down well with a tough audience that disagrees strongly with many things the government is doing.

As I wrote at the time:

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander, featured, nick clegg and vince cable | 3 Comments

Housing: the IPPR’s answer

By Mark Pack | Wed 27th June 2012 - 8:25 am

Over the last week I’ve highlighted how the Britain’s love of home ownership is not based on any evidence that high home ownership brings economic success (if anything, the opposite is true), that the proportion of people living in private rented accommodation is on a long-term rise and that changes in property prices in Britain are widening rather than narrowing the huge geographic imbalances. Add to all that the increasing importance that Vince Cable and Nick Clegg, in particular, are giving to the housing market for boosting economic growth, and it is a sector clearly in need of action.

But what action?

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged featured, ippr, land value tax, nick clegg and vince cable | 2 Comments

A longer read for the weekend: Baroness Kramer on how to kick-start economic growth

By Nick Thornsby | Sun 24th June 2012 - 9:45 am

Earlier this week, Baroness (Susan) Kramer moved a debate in the House of Lords on UK economic growth. Her speech covered the background to the UK’s current economic position as well as a number of suggestions of what the government can do to encourage growth. Below is a slightly edited version of the speech.

In 2010 the coalition inherited a badly damaged economy. The previous Government had built their boom on the back of tax revenues pumped up by false profits from the banks – …

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged economy and susan kramer | 12 Comments

This doesn’t look like a rebalancing housing market to me

By Mark Pack | Sat 23rd June 2012 - 10:50 am

Continuing this week’s mini-housing theme, here are the latest changes in house prices published this week by the Office of National Statistics:

Continue reading »

Posted in News | 6 Comments

The rise of the private renters

By Mark Pack | Fri 22nd June 2012 - 9:25 am

On Wednesday I returned to the theme of how private renters get short shrift in British politics. You can fight through a bulging email folder of press releases from politicians wanting to make mortgages easier, cheaper, safer and more numerous before you find one that talks about tackling any of the issues private renters face.

This continuing neglect of them is despite the continuing increase in their numbers, as new figures for the UK published this week show:

Continue reading »

Posted in News | 12 Comments

Is a high home ownership rate a sign of a successful country?

By Mark Pack | Wed 20th June 2012 - 2:50 pm

People who rent in the private sector get short shrift in British politics. Renting is rarely talked about and when it is, it is almost always in the context of it being seen as inferior to owner-occupation. It is as if a private renter is simply someone who has not been successful or lucky enough to become an owner-occupier.

As I wrote last year:

Continue reading »

Posted in News | 16 Comments

Vince Cable on “one of the great acts of economic vandalism in modern times”

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th June 2012 - 10:25 am

Yesterday Vince Cable gave a sweeping speech about the current state of the economy, lessons from the 1930s and the way forward.

The parallels with the 1930s are in some ways obvious, but as Cable pointed out there are important differences. In particular, in the 1930s there was no similar financial crash in Britain to mirror what happened this time. However, in another major respect this time round looks somewhat better than the 1930s as unemployment has not soared in a similar way, helped by the double-edged flexibility of wages. This time round, real wages have suffered, spreading the pain more widely but keeping more people in work.

Continue reading »

Posted in News | Also tagged economy and vince cable | 11 Comments

Opinion: Why Grant Shapps must be evicted as Housing Minister

By London Liberal | Sat 9th June 2012 - 2:25 pm

Ask teachers what they think of Michael Gove and I suspect that most will reply with derision. Ask doctors and nurses what they think of Andrew Lansley and I would imagine that, similarly, most will spit with rage. Ask housing professionals what they think of Grant Shapps and you certainly get an equally dismissive response from the vast majority.

Does the lack of professional support for the Tory policies being pursued by Tory Ministers in these crucial public services mean that these sectors are hopelessly leftist, resistant to change, and are just keen to protect their status, or is the Government’s unpopularity with them proof that the Tories still are the ‘nasty’ party and are as contemptuous of public services as ever? Or is this tension simply what always exists between public sector industries and the politicians that seek to govern/meddle with them, be they Labour or Conservative (or Liberal Democrat)?

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged grant shapps and stephen gilbert | 25 Comments