Lib Dems against social housing RTB
Tim Farron the recently elected leader of the Liberal Democrats made it clear in his speech at their conference this week, that his party were against the government plans for right to buy for tenants of housing association homes.
He made it clear he would not allow the government to ‘destroy’ social housing by extending Margaret Thatcher’s flagship Right to Buy policy to include Housing Associations, the party would use their power in the House of Lords to block such plans.
In his first speech as leader at the conference Farron set out plans to solve the housing crisis in England by building 300,000 new homes a year.
He said “Housing is the biggest single issue that politicians don’t talk about,”
“Well, we are going to talk about it, campaign on it, go on and on and on about it, and make a difference to the millions who have been ignored.
“Communities up and down this country have spent 25 years building housing association homes, picking up the pieces of Mrs Thatcher’s destruction of council housing, and we will not allow David Cameron to destroy that work too.”
He highlighted other policies that the Lib Dems would include to tackle the housing problem: Lifting the borrowing cap on local authorities, which the party claims could result in an extra 80,000 homes over five years, a ban on advertising UK properties to overseas investors first, a government-backed housing investment bank to provide capital for new homes and 10 new garden cities in England, including five major new settlements along a garden cities railway between Oxford and Cambridge.
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