Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Julia Goldsworthy has warned that many more people will lose their homes next year as mortgages become increasingly unaffordable.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders have warned that up to 45,000 homes will be repossessed next year, with hard-up families having to go to their local authorities in last recourse.
But the building of new council homes has fallen every year since Blair came to power, with Labour building fewer council houses than even the Major government. Those in financial trouble have less and less to fall back on. The number of families made homeless and reliant on local authority support following mortgage arrears has risen 28% since 2003. So far this year local authorities in England have had to turn away a total 27,370 homeless households.
Julia Goldsworthy said:
“Sky-high house prices have forced many families to take on unsustainable mortgage debts and many are now finding themselves in arrears.
“But there is no real safety net for those caught by the housing crisis. Under this Government the number of council houses has fallen, resulting in waiting lists for social housing soaring to over one and a half million.
“With the economy heading into choppier waters, thousands more families are in danger of facing problems in paying their mortgage.”
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5 Comments
Isnt Goldsworthy local gov?
She is and she might wish to highlight the LD controlled Vale of White Horse District Council in Oxfordshire which has bucked the national trend by building over 1500 houses since we took control in 1995. It remains a key commitment for us and we have committed £500,000 a year to supporting more housing.
Okay that’s dull but it shows what a LD authority can do and hints at what a LD government would be capable of.
Vale of White Horse was also the subject of a recent and highly successful LVT study of course – our party’s one and only policy* for house price stability and a sustainable tax switch (the opposite of what LIT will do in fact, on both counts!).
(* “policy” in the sense of being a “longer term Lib Dem aspiration” of course. Crisis? What housing crisis?)
The ‘discussion’ over Land Value Taxation (LVT) vs. Local Income Tax (LIT) needs to be had sooner rather than later. I’ve long been less than enthusiastic about LIT and LVT would do an awful lot to address issues within the ‘land’ market which would probably have a positive knock-on effect on the provision of housing across the country.
LIT by contrast will remove the property element from local taxation and may allow a number of better off people to avoid tax, which I’m sure nobody wants.
We do support Community Land Auctions as well, which, like LVT would lead to more stable house prices…