Liberal democrats set out plans to build a million new affordable homes by 2020

Yeovil Constituency MP, David Laws has welcomed the publication of radical proposals by the Liberal Democrats to tackle the severe shortage of affordable and social housing.

David Laws said:

“There are a million and a half families on council waiting lists nationally yet fewer and fewer social rented homes are being built. The number built each year has halved since Labour came to power.

“Meanwhile house prices have soared, growing at almost four times the rate of earnings. Many local young people in South Somerset are being left stranded, unable to afford to get even a foot on the housing ladder

“Meanwhile houses to buy are getting ever less affordable. House prices here in South Somerset have grown by 6.7%. An average house now costs over 10 times average earnings in our area. There’s no way most young people, even many young couples, can afford that. Thousands of local young people are being left stranded, unable to afford to get even a foot on the housing ladder as prices soar further and further out of their reach.

“These new proposals from the Liberal Democrats respond to both these problems. They would deliver the UK’s most ambitious home-building programme in over a quarter of a century -100,000 new social, low cost and affordable houses every year for 10 years to benefit those in housing need.

“This is the housing revolution that people in South Somerset desperately need.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Liberal Democrat proposals include:
• Building 100,000 new affordable, social and low cost homes each year
• Devolving and reforming the planning system to make decisions faster and more effective for all parties
• Introducing equity mortgages to ensure that affordable housing is built and maintained for the benefit of generations of buyers
• Building smaller social housing developments which are integrated with private housing
• Cutting VAT on housing renovations and repairs

The proposals were announced by Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell in a speech on June 14th and form part of the party’s Poverty and Inequality policy paper, which will be published shortly and debated and voted on at the party conference in September.

Category: Constituency News