Tag Archives: housing policy

Mark Valladares

18 November 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 18th November 2025 - 11:57 pm
  • Highest number of 8 hour waits at A&E in 2025
  • Scot Lib Dems call for action on Alzheimer’s and dementia
  • Rennie: Scottish education deserves better than third decade of SNP
  • Government must set out support for workers at Mossmorran
  • McArthur: Prison crisis shows every sign of getting worse
  • Rennie: Housing Secretary has some nerve as heating bill dropped

Highest number of 8 hour waits at A&E in 2025

Responding to new figures showing only 61.5% of people attending A&E were seen within the 4 hour target in the week ending 9th November 2025 (11,020 waited more than 4 hours, the highest in 2025), while 4,532 people waited over 8 hours (the highest in 2025) and 2,181 waited over 12 hours, Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Under the SNP it feels like every week at A&E is breaking a some kind of record for long waits. We are now seeing the highest number of people waiting over 8 hours of the entire year.

With the cold snap of the last few days we can be under no misapprehension that winter has now arrived, yet the SNP have squandered the months it had to prepare and left our A&E departments in a perilous state.

The Scottish Government needs to start taking serious action to support the staff facing these pressure cooker conditions. Scotland’s A&E patients deserve better – and with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, you can vote for change with fairness at its heart.

Scot Lib Dems call for action on Alzheimer’s and dementia

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today called for the Scottish Government to make sure people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias don’t fall through the cracks as new figures confirmed that they now account for around one in 10 of all deaths.

New figures published today by the National Records of Scotland show:

  • There were 6,612 deaths caused by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias registered in Scotland in 2024. This is one of the leading causes of death in Scotland, accounting for around one in 10 of all deaths.
  • After adjusting for age, there were 122 deaths caused by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias per 100,000 people in Scotland in 2024. This rate has almost doubled over the last two decades.
  • Almost two-thirds (64%) of deaths caused by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias were females and 36% were males.

Delegates at the Scottish Liberal Democrat autumn conference recently backed a motion calling for the Scottish Government to urgently establish minimum national care standards and entitlements for Scots with dementia.

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Mark Valladares

12 May 2025 – yesterday’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 13th May 2025 - 7:30 am
  • Lib Dems table humble address to force Government to publish impact assessment of UK-US deal
  • Care Workers: Change is urgently needed to fix the mess the Conservatives made
  • Liberal Democrats call on Government to “futureproof” infrastructure following reports of Underground failures
  • Rennie to push amendments to housing bill

Lib Dems table humble address to force Government to publish impact assessment of UK-US deal

The Liberal Democrats will table a humble address in Parliament this week to force the Government to publish its impact assessments of the agreement with the US announced last week.

The Government has so far not published documents such as impact assessments on key British industries following the deal, leaving many in the dark as to what ministers have given up in exchange for Trump’s lowering of tariffs.

The deal allows more American beef into the UK market, as well as setting a limit on the number of British cars that can be exported to the US before being hit with 25% tariffs. It is not yet clear what impact this will have on these sectors as the Government has not published the relevant analysis.

The Liberal Democrat motion aims to force the Government to publish these details. Humble Address motions have been successfully used in the past, including in 2017 when the Government was forced to publish an impact assessment of Brexit on the economy.

The Liberal Democrats are also calling on the government to prepare plans in case Trump reneges on the deal or imposes further tariffs in the future, given his record of doing so to other countries he has signed trade deals with, including Canada.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Government needs to publish the details behind this agreement so those impacted aren’t left in the dark, from Britain’s world-class farmers to all those working in businesses still being hit by Trump’s tariffs.

People are deeply worried about Donald Trump’s attempts to bully the UK and his record of breaking his own deals.

We’ve seen how Trump has trampled over deals he signed with our allies like Canada. We cannot allow him to do the same to Britain. The Prime Minister needs to recognise this and prepare a plan B if Trump tears up this agreement or imposes new tariffs in future.

The Liberal Democrats will keep standing up for Britain and holding this Government to account over their dealings with Trump.

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Chris Bowers

We can solve the housing crisis without creating rural sprawl

By Chris Bowers | Mon 17th March 2025 - 2:33 pm

The two biggest issues that concern young voters are housing and climate change. Housing is the more hands-on challenge, as plenty of young adults just can’t get on the property ladder, whether buying or renting. The traditional rite of passage of children fleeing the nest when school ends now unravels three or four years later when they return to their parental home as their only financially viable living option – which can remain their home for several frustrating years. So if we want to be taken seriously by the youngest voters, we have to have a credible housing policy.

The option all political parties have chosen to tackle the housing crisis at the last few elections is to promise mass housebuilding. It has led to unseemly and meaningless auctions – one party promises 200,000 new dwellings a year, another raises that to 250,000, another to 300,000 – plus antagonistic debates about housebuilding targets at Lib Dem conferences. The developers love it, but the numbers of houses being built don’t really change. And anyway, do we really need to build our way out of trouble?

With the Liberal Democrats holding 72 MPs, many seats in the kind of small towns whose peripheries are threatened by the surge in housebuilding promised by Starmer’s government, we have something of a dilemma. We don’t want to be Nimbyist, but at the same time we don’t want our rural towns to become sprawling car-dependent suburbia.

The implicit assumption behind mass housebuilding is that there isn’t enough residential property. Yet for years suggestions have abounded that we do have enough living space – we just don’t use it well. Even if that’s technically true, to be ultra-efficient would result in a loss of freedom as the state would have to order people to live in others’ houses to maximise residential space. That would be a hard pill for Liberals to swallow, let alone the rest of society that remembers the centralised residential diktats of the Soviet bloc.

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Posted in Op-eds | 15 Comments
Gareth Roberts

‘Going for growth’ nationally must mean more devolution locally

By Gareth Roberts | Mon 9th September 2024 - 12:45 pm

As a proud leader of a London borough, vice chair of London Councils, and a member of the London Assembly, I am dutybound to declare London the greatest city in the world.

However, the capital faces major challenges.
London is home to individuals with incredible wealth alongside some of the poorest in the UK. Around a third of children in London live in poverty – an appalling statistic.

We are also in the midst of a homelessness emergency, with one in 50 Londoners currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation arranged by their local borough.

And on top of all this, London’s economy is struggling. While the capital remains a key source of revenue for the Treasury, there is considerable evidence that London is underperforming economically and even holding back UK productivity rates.

These challenges clearly have a big impact on the lives of the Londoners I represent – but they also have implications for the rest of the country and for national policy.

Going for growth

The recently elected government has declared boosting economic growth its “most central mission of all”. Get the economy growing and we’ll be in a better position to do things like tackle poverty and homelessness. With growth, there will be more resources available to fix social ills and provide much-needed investment in public services.

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | 10 Comments
Charlie Murphy

Liberal Democrats must drive the new government hard on housing

By Charlie Murphy | Mon 5th August 2024 - 4:39 pm

It is a familiar story that parties find it politically expedient to oppose new homes being built, particularly within a given politician’s local area. It happens time and again, even among those who profess an understanding or recognition of the scale of the housing crisis and its injustice.

We desperately need more homes nationally, but problems with housing affordability are most acute in the South East of England and the Home Counties surrounding London. When we talk of “the right homes in the right places” it is all too easy to think that means “not here”.

The reality for the Liberal Democrats is now that “not here” doesn’t work. We have been enormously successful in selling a vision of a progressive, forward looking and practical politics to large parts of the South East and Home Counties. In the East of England we won seven MPs, and in the South East we won twenty-four – around 3,500 votes off of supplanting the Conservatives as the second party in the region.

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Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments
Andrew Chandler

We need to be ambitious on planning and housing – while telling uncomfortable truths

By Andrew Chandler | Tue 16th July 2024 - 10:50 am

Now that the election is over, and we have successfully made inroads into the Conservative Blue Wall, it’s time to reflect and learn from our past. Moving forward, it’s crucial that we balance our national progressive platform with the needs of our Blue Wall constituents. We must navigate this balance with confidence, avoiding the pitfalls of timidity that have hindered us in the past. In a landscape marked by fragmented politics and widespread distrust, we can’t afford to be complacent.

Our victories in this election were not isolated as an endorsement alone but were also influenced by a split on the right. It poses a threat for us. People have an appetite to “shake-up” the system feeling that, for years, Governments have neglected issues like housing, development and infrastructure. We need to be mindful of the rising threat of far-right politics, which often scapegoats marginal groups instead of addressing the real issues. The performances of parties like Reform and the lukewarm vote share for Labour highlight the concerns of many communities. These communities feel “threatened,” suffer from managed decline, and lack regeneration. It’s our duty to ensure that the gains we’ve made in the Blue Wall, while substantiated, also remains meaningful and sometimes brave.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 30 Comments
Simon McGrath

If you back our immigration policy, you should vote to keep a housing target

By Simon McGrath | Mon 18th September 2023 - 9:23 am

In 2022, the population of the UK grew by 606,000. In the year ended June 2022, 173,520 new homes were built in England. The mismatch between the two figures is one factor in rising rents.

Our Party – more than any other – is the one which has been happy about immigration. We also have a policy on asylum seekers which would mean we were welcoming more asylum seekers to the country. Given that, it seems quite extraordinary that the Federal Policy Committee is seeking to remove a target for new homes from our policy.

They say that …

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Posted in Conference, Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | 34 Comments
Brian Edmonds

Tim is right – the real housing crisis is in social housing for rent

By Brian Edmonds | Mon 10th August 2020 - 11:45 am

Bravo Tim – at long last a clear and radical Lib Dem message on the scandal of social housing (Press Release 06 08 – ‘Jenrick’s planning reform won’t solve housing crisis’). We must pursue this with all possible force, because it is manifestly right and, in purely political terms, it highlights a massive void in the policies of the other two main parties.

As Tim says in his response to Jenrick’s lamentable proposals, there may be a shortage of affordable property to buy, but the real scandal concerns the least well-off. It is they who are condemned to rent insecure, insanitary, …

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Posted in Op-eds | 25 Comments
Alan Muhammed

The Next Lib Dem USP – Build More Houses

By Alan Muhammed | Tue 25th February 2020 - 12:30 pm

Embed from Getty Images

In my last post on Lib Dem Voice I touched on the current soul-searching going on within our Party, focusing on future electoral strategy. However, a successful electoral strategy has no purpose if we have no vision of what we would do with any further power it may bring. Now that the fight to keep the UK in the EU has been lost, the Liberal Democrats are in need of a new mission.

I can think of none better than solving the country’s housing crisis. The current lack of housing in the UK contributes to a number of the country’s wider problems, and so to tackle the housing crisis would go some distance towards making our country greener, healthier, more productive, and more equal.

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Mark Platt

Ending Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions is the right thing to do for private renters – it can also be a vote winner

By Mark Platt | Tue 19th March 2019 - 12:28 pm

I’m a private renter. Nothing unusual about that I’m sure you’ll say, lots of people are. And that’s true, but it wasn’t always that way, and the current situation, of growing numbers of private renters, is a recent phenomenon. The most recent figures from the English Housing Survey show that a fifth of people across England now live in privately rented accommodation.

A third of councils have more than 20% of residents renting privately, and research from the campaign group Shelter shows that at the next (currently scheduled) general election there will be 253 constituencies where more than 20% of voters …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Mark Valladares

3 December 2018 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 3rd December 2018 - 11:59 pm

It’s been a busy day, perhaps not a great surprise as the Brexit debate in the Commons reaches its denouement…

  • Cable: Halt “egregious imbalance” of May vs Corbyn Brexit debate
  • Lib Dems back amendment to stop no deal Brexit
  • Lib Dems: Govt have held Parliament in contempt
  • Govt remain clueless on immigration
  • Lib Dem peers defeat Government on civil liberties (see here for our earlier coverage)
  • PM must stop pandering to the Saudi regime
  • Lib Dems lead fight for renters’ rights
  • Govt must publish Brexit legal advice

Cable: Halt “egregious imbalance” of May vs Corbyn Brexit debate

Today Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable has called on the …

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Martin Roche

South East Liberal Democrats back dynamic ideas for “People’s Advocate” in planning issues and bigger role for chambers of commerce in local economic development

By Martin Roche | Thu 22nd November 2018 - 12:14 pm

Liberal Democrats from across the south east of England gathered in Canterbury on 17thNovember for their annual regional conference. Held at the city’s Spires Academy, the conference heard from MPs Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne), Ed Davey (Kingston) and Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) as well as Baroness Judith Jolly and the Leader of the Opposition on Kent County Council, Cllr Rob Bird. 

Canterbury and Coastal Liberal Democrats proposed two motions. Both were endorsed by the conference by overwhelmingly majorities.  They will now be considered at national level.

The first idea proposed is in response to the widely held feeling in communities across the country that ordinary people don’t get a proper hearing on planning matters. 

In cities, towns and villages across the South East ordinary voters feel the cards are stacked against them. They see developers hiring expensive lawyers, planning consultants and PR firms that dominate the process and shut out objections. 

The Liberal Democrat idea is that communities will be able to able to apply for a match funded grant of up to £5,000 from their local council. With money from their own resources added to the council grant, a community will be able to hire a legal, planning or public relations expert, known as “A People’s Advocate,”  to guide them and help them shape their campaign. 

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Posted in News and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , and | 36 Comments
NewsHound

Liberal Democrats call for new housing revolution

By NewsHound | Mon 12th March 2018 - 10:16 am

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a major overhaul of the powers of local councils to meet the goal of ensuring that everyone in Britain has a home.

The package, passed by the party at its Spring Conference in Southport, calls for new powers that will see local authorities able to build and invest in more affordable and social housing. This includes greater access to borrowing for local authorities, strengthened powers to bring empty homes back into use and the power to direct the use of otherwise unwanted public land. Alongside measures to allow local government to abandon Right to Buy …

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Alan Ward

The Independent View: tackling bad landlords

By Alan Ward | Thu 4th May 2017 - 10:15 am

With more and more people relying on the private rented sector for their housing, the Liberal Democrats will be looking to develop a workable policy that supports tenants and encourages good landlords.

Last year Caroline Pidgeon from the Greater London Assembly published startling research. It showed that in the whole of 2015/16, just 411 landlords had been prosecuted across the capital, with a quarter of all boroughs not prosecuting any landlord at all. This is despite there being over 400 regulations governing the sector.

This highlights that the problem of tackling bad landlords is in large part due to regulations not …

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Posted in The Independent View | 9 Comments
NewsHound

“Homeowners could get payout if house values fall” – Nick Clegg on garden cities

By NewsHound | Mon 4th August 2014 - 4:04 pm

In an unexpected intervention – an interview on BBC’s “Countryfile”, Nick Clegg has suggested that existing homeowners in areas where new garden cities are to be built could be compensated for any fall in value that might be caused by the building work;

We could maybe give deductions on council tax over a period of time during which the garden city is being built, we could possibly also say to those homeowners where they think the price of their homes will be effected, we will guarantee the price of their home, by buying it, if you like, up front.”

The …

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Has Nick Boles given the kiss of life to localism?

By Andy Boddington | Fri 11th January 2013 - 3:51 pm

Announcements come out of the communities department at all times of the day and night these days it seems. Rather before most of us were awake on Thursday morning, the department slipped out a statement that may just breathe life into the flagging localism project.

Coming hours after the appearance of planning minister Nick Boles on Newsnight on Wednesday, the statement gave a firm commitment that communities will soon benefit from development on their patch.

The plan is that parish and town councils will get a sizeable share of the community infrastructure levy imposed on most new developments. At …

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Graeme Cooke

Independent View: What now for housing policy?

By Graeme Cooke | Fri 21st September 2012 - 2:21 pm

As the coalition approaches the halfway point of the Parliament, Liberal Democrats are in search of policies that demonstrate their distinctive contribution to government – especially on the crucial issue of growth. Pre-conference briefing suggests that leading party figures see affordable house building as a leading option. They are right to do so. It would boost demand, create jobs, and meet a pressing social need. The Tories are focused on reforming the planning system, but evidence suggests this is a tough political sell. Efforts to finance house building through clever Treasury wheezes that try to circumvent borrowing constraints have …

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Posted in News and The Independent View | Also tagged | 3 Comments
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