Liberal Democrats policy references

29 January 2015

Issue / Summary of position / Date and source
Housing
Set an ambitious target of increasing the rate of house building to 300,000 a year, and build to the Zero Carbon Standard.
• Within the first year of the next Parliament, publish a long term plan which sets out how this goal will be achieved. Appoint a ministerial taskforce on housing, hosted by the Cabinet Office, to oversee this task.
• As part of this plan, publish proposals for at least ten new ‘Garden Cities’ in England, in areas where there is local support, providing tens of thousands of high quality new homes, with gardens and shared green space, jobs, schools and public transport.
• Bring forward development on unwanted public sector sites through the Homes and Communities Agency.
• Help social housing providers including councils to build more affordable homes to rent, with central government investment and local flexibility within the Housing Revenue Account. To maximise total house building we will work with housing providers to design new models of affordable housing, to sit alongside the traditional social rented sector, including models that offer a path to ownership for lower income working families.
• Require local authorities in England to allocate land to meet 15 years’ housing need in their local plans, and work with local authorities to pilot techniques for capturing the increase in land value from the granting of planning permission.
• Tackle overcrowding with a new system to incentivise social landlords to reduce the number of tenants under-occupying their homes, freeing up larger properties for larger families. We will reform the policy to remove the spare room subsidy. The subsidy will continue to be removed for new tenants in social housing but existing social tenants will not be subject to any housing benefit deduction until they have received a reasonable offer of alternative social rented accommodation with the correct number of bedrooms. We will ensure that tenants who need an extra bedroom for genuine medical reasons or whose homes are substantially adapted do not have their housing benefit reduced. / Pre-manifesto document (Sept 2014)
http://www.libdems.org.uk/policy_paper_121
New Towns / Garden Cities / 10 new garden cities– Nick Clegg pledged to deliver 10 new garden cities in the event of the Lib Dems being returned to Government. Five of the new garden cities would be situated between Oxford and Cambridge, and serviced by a new rail link.
Garden communities offer an alternative way of meeting housing need
Promotion of Garden Communities through:
a) Introducing a local trigger into the 1981 New Towns Act where partnerships may choose to meet their housing allocation through one or more larger settlements (10,000 plus), securing land at low cost at a distance from existing settlements.
b) In return, Local Planning Authorities protecting open spaces closer to the existing settlement.
c) Generating community benefit through the difference in land cost and subsequent value when planning permission is granted, which would provide resources to support a community with good infrastructure and amenities. / http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/news-and-events/liberal-democrats-conference-debrief-housing-and-planning-policy
9 October 2014
Feb 2014; Spring Conference Motion
House building numbers / 300,000 new homes per year
Increase the UK’s social housing stock– As part of the 300,000 new homes pledged to be built a year, the Party promised an unspecified “significant percentage” would be designated as social housing to address to current imbalance in the UK housing stock.
Central government to become a ‘Commissioner for housing’– In an attempt to galvanise the number of new homes being built, and to avoid missing targets, this proposal would enable central government to act as a ‘backstop’. Central government would become a ‘commissioner for housing’ in the private sector and take a more direct role in delivering new housing.
Support for offsite construction industry– The Party pledged its continued support for the role of small and medium-size builders, new entrants and self-build play in delivering new housing.
Introduction of a ‘housing investment bank’– The new fund would help to improve access for social landlords to cheap finance and simplify the allocation process.
Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron has said that a new ministerial taskforce is urgently needed to oversee a “long-term strategy” for the housing sector.
Writing in the forthcoming September issue of 24housing magazine, the MP says that a “new consensus” is needed to broach the housing crisis, and that government must agree that “housing cannot continue to be side-lined or lost between at least three different government departments”.
In his article, Mr Farron claims that housing must not be “ignored in the name of localism” and locally-led housing development must be “truly encouraged and integrated into welfare reform, environmental challenges, rent policy, demographic trends and a wider growth agenda”.
The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale writes that part his plan to solve the housing crisis “must include more strategic use of both private and public money”. / Lib Dem Conference 2014
http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/news-and-events/liberal-democrats-conference-debrief-housing-and-planning-policy
http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2014-08-14-Exclusive-Lib-Dem-president-calls-for-ministerial-housing-taskforce
24.dash.com August 2014
Neighbourhood planning / Greater resources for the development and updating of Neighbourhood Plans. / Spring Conference Motion
Planning
General / “We need a planning system which supports growth while protecting and enhancing key social and environmental assets.” / 2015 Manifesto consultation
NPPF and NPPG / The NPPF and NPPG provide a framework for Local Planning Authorities to assess their Housing Need. LPA's must present their analysis and conclusions on their local housing need in an open, transparent, and easily accessible format. If local residents are to be fully engaged in the planning process they must be able to understand the basis of the calculations and be assured that there is not double counting across authorities. It would be helpful if housing need could be broken down, so that an assessment can be made of the type of housing provision needed - specialist housing including provision for our ageing population, size of home, provision for intermediate housing (raised with us by the CE of Pocket*- see Annex 1), private rented/social rent, and other categories. / 2014 Spring motion
Feb 28, 2014
Financial incentives to communities / Nick Clegg proposed that council tax reductions could go to residents near developments of garden cities. / Beginning August 2014 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/11008331/Nick-Clegg-pay-residents-to-accept-new-Garden-Cities.html
Land Auctions / Measures to allow communities to benefit from development windfalls, including piloting of community land auctions for publicly and privately owned land. / 2014 Spring motion
Right to buy / Suspension of ‘Right to Buy’– The policy, which dates back to the Margaret Thatcher era, has been castigated by the Lib Dem leadership as “plundering the country’s social housing stock” and local authorities would therefore be empowered to suspend it. / 2014 Autumn Conference
http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/news-and-events/liberal-democrats-conference-debrief-housing-and-planning-policy
Plan-led system / More on higher density with good design in appropriate locations (AB)
Promotion of greater competition in the house building market by:
a)  Reserving a significant portion of land for small developers and self-builders when public land is sold for development (the local authority should hold a register of those seeking land to inform the proportion needed).
b)  Giving planning authorities the right to require under the planning permission that land be provided for small developers/self builderswithin any development larger than 40 homes.
c) Using new communities to encourage greater access to land by a wide range of providers including self and commissioned build / Spring Conference Motion
Brownfield development / At theHousing the Nationfringe event, Stephen Williams MP emphasised the importance of the Government using a brownfield first policy to address the UK housing shortage, although he did concede it would not be enough to match the Lib Dem pledge of 300,000 new homes a year promised by the end of the next Parliament. / http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/news-and-events/liberal-democrats-conference-debrief-housing-and-planning-policy
Strategic planning (larger than local) – LEPs, city deals, core cities / There is a clear need for strategic planning co-operation beyond the boundaries of individual planning authorities on a democratic basis to address joint needs. (motion)
Greater cooperation on strategic planning issues by local authorities working together in natural ‘sub regions’, by:
a) Encouraging local authorities to form partnerships determining the boundaries themselves, as in city regions
b) The partnerships individually and jointly producing plans to meet housing need on a bottom up basis, with democratic representation from councillors from all political or non-political groups when determining final plans.
c) The partnerships also addressing economic growth and combining to deliver infrastructure over a larger area / Spring motion
Feb 28, 2014
Climate change (inc flooding) / 8. The planning system and building regulations to further help respond to climate change by:
a) Requiring local plans to provide sufficient green and blue (water) spaces in urban areas to mitigate the heat island effect - such spaces will also bring health and other benefits for local residents.
b) Amendingbuilding control regulations to take proper account of the rising summer temperatures that will be caused by climate change. / Spring Motion
Feb 28, 2014
Planning Inspectorate / Public consultation on relationship between communities, local government, the Planning Inspectorate and the Secretary of State must be redefined to end unnecessary intervention in local decisions against the wishes of local councils and communities where local plans are up to date and approved / Spring 2014 Motion
Third party right of appeal / Community Right of Appeal if a planning authority passes an application which is not in conformity with an approved, up-to-date Neighbourhood Plan / Spring 2014 Motion
Devolution of use classes / Giving more power to local planning authorities to determine use classes. / Spring Conference Motion
Infrastructure
Green infrastructure / “Low-carbon and environmental investment offers the UK a chance to create new jobs and prosperity – a route out of recession and towards a modern and competitive economy. Green technology, infrastructure and service companies now account for almost 10 per cent of UK GDP and employ almost a million people.” / Manifesto consultation
Transport infrastructure / • Set out 10-year rolling capital investment plans.
• Develop a comprehensive plan to electrify all suburban and major
rail routes, reopen many smaller stations, restore twin track lines
to major routes and proceed with HS2, as the first stage of a highspeed
rail network to Scotland.
• Support a new generation of light rail and ultra-light rail schemes in
towns and cities where local people want them. / https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/libdems/pages/6272/attachments/original/1409941645/Pre-Manifesto_3_Sep_2014.pdf?1409941645
Manifesto Sept 2014

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