Our candidate for Smethwick, Oliver Patrick, on the housing crisis and Lib dem policies to address it.
The Liberal Democrat’s policy on housing is centred on ensuring access to good quality housing for all, recognising its essential role in people’s wellbeing. Our policy highlights the current housing crisis, characterised by a shortage of affordable and social housing, missed government housing targets, and issues with energy efficiency and building safety in newly built homes. This can be done by using brownfield sites, and ending land-banking by developers, while protecting the Green Belt and the limited amount of green space in Sandwell. 

And there has been praise for the Lib Dem manifesto from Crisis: Crisis responds to Liberal Democrats manifest

Our policy aims to tackle these issues comprehensively with the following measures, including scrapping the archaic 200-year old Vagrancy Act to combat homelessness:

1. Building New Homes:
   • Construct at least 150,000 new council and social homes annually.
   • Empower local authorities to end the right to buy in their areas.
   • Require local authorities to implement a landlord licensing scheme.
2. Land Acquisition and Building Powers:
   • Allow councils to purchase land for housing developments at its current use value rather than its potential “hope value” after planning permission.
   • Reform the Land Compensation Act 1961 to facilitate this process.
   • Strengthen local authorities’ powers to build their own homes.
3. Rights for Renters:
   • Ban no-fault evictions.
   • Make longer tenancies the default option.
   • Enhance the rights of social housing tenants by giving them more control over the management of their homes and estates.
4. Standards and Safety:
   • Improve standards for new homes to ensure they are warm, cheap to heat, and produce zero emissions.
   • Ensure leaseholders are not financially responsible for removing dangerous cladding from their buildings.

These initiatives reflect the Liberal Democrats’ commitment to addressing housing shortages and improving housing quality and affordability, thereby promoting the wellbeing of residents across the UK.