Lib Dems make housing pledges ahead of the general election
The Liberal Democrats pledged to up housebuilding, crack down on second homeowners and introduce mandatory landlord licencing in the party’s manifesto, ahead of the general election taking place on 12 December.
Here are the key housing pledges:
- Build 300,000 homes per year by 2024 through direct spending, including 100,000 social homes. The housebuilding pledge has unsurprisingly been met with some scepticism, given how difficult it would be to meet such a lofty target.
- Create a programme to insulate all of Britain’s homes by 2030, cutting both emissions and fuel bills.
- Introduce mandatory licensing for landlords, which the party said would improve protections against rogue landlords.
- Promote longer tenancies of three years or more, with annual rent increases being linked to inflation.
- Introduce a Rent to Own model for social housing, where tenants would gain a bigger stake in their property through renting, eventually allowing them to own it outright after 30 years.
- Give local authorities the power to increase council taxes by up to 500% on homes purchased as second homes, while they could increase stamp duty on overseas residents buying homes.
- Establish a Help to Rent scheme to provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all frst-time renters under 30.
- Help young people into the rental market by establishing a new Help to Rent scheme to provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30.