A few weeks ago I wrote on Lib Dem Voice about the full throttle attack that Lib Dems in the Lords are undertaking on the Housing and Planning Bill – one of the shoddiest pieces of legislation put before Parliament for well over a decade.
Yesterday the votes began and the Government was defeated twice – a sign of things to come. Getting this controversial bill through may prove Cameron’s toughest legislative battle yet.
The bill fails to tackle the affordability crisis in housing. What the Tories think is affordable, simply isn’t affordable for most people. It is ludicrous that at a time when housing reform is desperately needed, we are sitting in Parliament debating measures which will give large cash bonuses to the better off and simply exacerbate housing inequalities.
The Tory Government has the wrong priorities on housing and simply put, the Lords just won’t support something so damaging. For Osborne it is home ownership at any cost, no matter how many council homes you have to sell off in the process. What of those who can’t afford to buy? No matter – they’ll never vote Tory anyway.
Another problem with this Bill is that the ideas it contains have clearly not been fully considered. They were manifesto headlines which made for a popular announcement at the time, but with none of the detail developed. So even potentially good ideas, such as Starter Homes, are riddled with loopholes.
The Government will face a good deal of embarrassment in the next couple of weeks as the Lords reject many aspects of the bill. The Lib Dems, who are fighting to ensure home ownership is not a preserve of the rich, can take significant responsibility for that.
We will continue to fight this bill until the bitter end and limit Tory damage to an already elitist housing market. The likely impact on homelessness of this bill is frightening. The sell-off of thousands of council homes will rip apart communities, forcing people to move away from areas they grew up in. The impending defeats in the Lords send a clear message – the Government must think again.
Share this e-petition with members and non-members to stop the homes sell-off: change.libdems.org.uk/housing
* Baroness Cathy Bakewell is the Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson on DEFRA.
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8 Comments
“Tirade” – really?
tirade
tʌɪˈreɪd,tɪ-/Submit
noun
a long, angry speech of criticism or accusation.
“a tirade of abuse”
synonyms: diatribe, invective, polemic, denunciation, rant, broadside, attack, harangue, verbal onslaught;
Cabinet Minister Greg Clarke has achieved nationwide publicity by allowing a planning decision on green belt land in Gloucester.
For Tirade read torrent.
Current house prices are socially divisive and I’m very pleased to read that Lib Dems in the Lords are voting and fighting for opportunity for all.
It is also worth saying that house prices in the poor north also exclude a great number of normal working people from having a house they can call their own.
A sharp increase in interest rates would reduce house prices.
However, current low interest rates have made mortgages more affordable than otherwise. The house price fall from higher interest rates would be offset by higher mortgage costs.
The only solution is to build houses faster than the increase in population. Or stop the population increasing faster than the supply of housing. It’s supply and demand.
When my wife and I emigrated to Canada in 1970 a new three bedroomed house would have set us back around £4000, the deposit for which was equivalent to around three months of my teacher’s salary. When we returned for good in 1974 the same house would have set us around £12,000 (thanks largely to the ‘Barber Boom’). My salary then was about double what I had been earning when I left. So the money with which we returned proved only just enough to buy us a modern semi in West Yorkshire. At least it got us started – just.
Since then property prices have, pardon the pun, gone through the roof. Today a teacher starting out in the profession would, even here in relatively cheap Lincolnshire, need well over one year’s salary to be able to secure any mortgage at all. At the other end of the scale it is reckoned that the average age of a first time buyer in London is around 43!
Not long ago the main indicator of the success of our economy was often judged by the rise in house prices. What was once simply viewed as a roof over your head has, for several generations, been seen by home owners almost as a licence to print money. Those of us who managed to get on the housing ladder over 40 years ago have, in many cases, been able to help our own children on to that ladder as well. We and they are the lucky ones.
The ONLY way to bring some sanity into the housing market is to BUILD MANY MORE HOUSES. Why not also acknowledge that not everyone wants to own their own home, for a variety of reasons and allow councils to build homes for rent WITH NO RIGHT TO BUY?
Vince Cable has documented the regional imbalances in After the Storm, including deflation in Northern Ireland.
Build houses faster than the population increase. Factory built ,prefabs, can be rapidly built and have been developed in the Netherlands and are up and running in estates there They are 20% cheaper even with transport costs and Bradford is building some. Equally a factory outside Leeds is now developing them and providing jobs. It is early days yes,but the future is there. Mass production cuts the cost, cheaper houses ,cheaper mortgages, cheaper rents. They will cost less for councils to develop and some can be FOR RENT ONLY. Equally they can be in mixed estates for rent and first time homes. As they are in sections they can be transported anywhere in the country, including rural areas creating jobs via expansion of this industry. It is not a threat to conventional builders, it is an addition to them for those who cannot afford the average price of a house today £288,000 AdLib. mag. figure. The party should grasp the nettle and be radical for the future.