Tackling the Housing Crisis

Submitted by: Federal Policy Committee
Mover: Helen Morgan MP (Spokesperson for Housing, Communities and Local Government).
Summation: Cllr Peter Thornton (Chair of the Policy Working Group).

Conference believes that:

1. England's housing market is profoundly unfair, with a secure home become increasingly impossible for millions of people, especially the young, less well-off and ethnic minorities.
2. Successive governments have pursued policies to benefit homeowners, without considering the impact on those without property while other policies such as cuts to stamp duty have increased demand for homes without increasing the supply, exacerbating the crisis.
3. A secure home is a fundamental right that all people should have.
4. A fair deal is needed for housing, which provides for the needs of everyone, not just homeowners and meets the aspirations of millions of younger people and the less well-off to have the security that older generations and the wealthy enjoy.

Conference condemns a string of Conservative failures on housing, which has created England's housing crisis, including:

1. The 2015 promise to build 200,000 starter homes by 2020, none of which were built.
2. The failure to build replacement council houses for those lost under Right to Buy.
3. Only 21 of the 59 recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry have been incorporated into the law and the delayed decision over cladding, which has left millions of people in mental anguish and uncertain finances unnecessarily.
4. Conservative MPs voting against proposals to ensure that rental properties are 'fit for human habitation' in 2017.
5. 'Help to Buy', condemned by the IMF, Mervyn King, the Institute of Directors and the Office for Budget Responsibility as ineffective and costing £21bn by Q2 2021.
6. The proposed introduction of Right to Buy for housing association properties, which would further reduce the availability of social housing.
7. The promised reform of leasehold rules, which have failed to materialise
8. The promised abolition of unfair evictions in 2019 which is yet to be delivered.
9. Around 1 million homes already have planning permission and are not yet built, with another 1 million homes in local plans that have not yet reached the planning stage.

Conference maintains its commitment to a national housing target of 380,000 new homes per year, to set a clear direction of travel and to indicate serious intent to address the housing crisis.

Conference believes that local housing targets need to exist as part of delivering an overall national target; local and central government share responsibility for delivering the housing we desperately need. Local Planning Authorities should co-operate at regional or sub-regional level to ensure that they deliver homes where they are needed.

Conference agrees that Liberal Democrats should put in place detailed policies to address the ongoing national failure to build enough homes. Only with an ambitious response to the housing crisis can people in desperate housing need have a realistic ambition to buy or rent the home they need.

Conference therefore endorses policy paper 155, Tackling the Housing Crisis, and in particular its proposals to improve housing in England by:

1. Building 150,000 social homes a year, including council houses, by the end of the next parliament.
2. Introducing a new approach to housing targets,that translates the national target into achievable local targets, creating sustainable communities and rewarding local authorities that support the housing growth agenda’.
3. Introducing binding targets for affordable and social housing set by the local authority, who would be allowed to build their own social and affordable housing to meet their targets, using borrowing to do so.
4. Building ten new garden cities to tackle the housing crisis.
5. Introducing a package of measures to tackle the climate crisis including:
   1. Higher minimum standards for new builds.
   2. Insulating all Britain's homes to the highest possible EPC standard in ten years.
   3. Creating locally designed and implemented Environmental Improvement Areas.
6. Ensuring that all development has appropriate infrastructure, services and amenities in place, including, through integrating infrastructure and public service delivering into the planning process.
7. Abolishing residential leaseholds and cap ground rents on commonhold and commercial leaseholds to a nominal fee, so that everyone has control over their property.
8. Ensuring a fair deal for renters by:
   1. Introducing a national register and minimum standards for landlords.
   2. Extending the default tenancy to 3 years.
   3. Introducing rent smoothing for the first 3 years of a tenancy.
   4. Abolishing all eviction except where a tenant has been proven to be breaking the terms of the rental agreement.
   5. Giving social tenants more powers to run ballots, giving them greater opportunity and control, including the possibility to back new social homes.
9. Managing the impact of second homes and holiday lets by:
   1. Giving local authorities new powers to control second homes and holiday lets including new planning classes.
   2. Requiring second homeowners, holiday lets and investment property to pay their fair share of tax.
10. Ensuring our construction sector is on a sustainable footing by investing in skills, training and new technologies such as Modern Methods of Construction.
11. Encouraging meaningful community engagement in the planning process by:
    1. Legally requiring developers and councils to seek the views of underrepresented groups.
    2. xpanding Neighbourhood Planning across England.
    3. Encouraging councils to develop innovative methods of democratic engagement in the Local Plan process.
    4. Exploring methods for communities to back new developments, including giving residents of streets the ability to support more homes on their street.
12. Creating a fairer market in land by:
    1. Reforming the Land Compensation Act so public infrastructure and housing can be delivered at a fair price.
    2. Extending the Commercial Landowner Levy to land that has planning permission.
    3. Ensuring full transparency in the market for developable land.
    4. Continue and, if successful, expand trials of Community Land Auctions to ensure that local communities receive a fair share of the benefits of new development in their areas and to help fund vital local services.
13. Exploring methods to encourage the sustainable use of existing buildings to allow people to make the most of their home, whilst complying with all relevant local plan requirements.
14. Encouraging development of existing brownfield sites with financial incentives and ensuring that affordable and social housing is included in these projects.
15. Introducing ‘use-it-or-lose-it planning permission’ for developers who fail to develop land that has been given full planning permission.
16. Strengthening the investment in infrastructure works to free up sites where permission has been agreed.
17. Ensuring that when offices are converted to residential properties through permitted development the local planning authority has the power to insist social and affordable housing is included.
18. Ensuring vacant land and buildings in public ownership can be prioritised for development projects which deliver public good socially, economically or environmentally by:
19. a) Giving councils the power to mandate that public land is developed for social housing only.
    b) Introducing guidance for central government departments and arms-length bodies to ensure social value is factored in when publicly owned assets are sold off.

Applicability: England only; except 5. b) (lines 74-75), which is Federal.

Amendment before amendment

Conference believes that:

1. England's housing market is profoundly unfair, with a secure home become increasingly impossible for millions of people, especially the young, less well-off and ethnic minorities.
2. Successive governments have pursued policies to benefit homeowners, without considering the impact on those without property.
3. A secure home is a fundamental right that all people should have.
4. A fair deal is needed for housing, which provides for the needs of everyone, not just homeowners and meets the aspirations of millions of younger people and the less well-off to have the security that older generations and the wealthy enjoy.

Conference condemns a string of Conservative failures on housing, which has created England's housing crisis, including:

1. The 2015 promise to build 200,000 starter homes by 2020, none of which were built.
2. The failure to build replacement council houses for those lost under Right to Buy.
3. Only 21 of the 59 recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry have been incorporated into the law and the delayed decision over cladding, which has left millions of people in mental anguish and uncertain finances unnecessarily.
4. Conservative MPs voting against proposals to ensure that rental properties are 'fit for human habitation' in 2017.
5. 'Help to Buy', condemned by the IMF, Mervyn King, the Institute of Directors and the Office for Budget Responsibility as ineffective and costing £21bn by Q2 2021.
6. The proposed introduction of Right to Buy for housing association properties, which would further reduce the availability of social housing.
7. The promised reform of leasehold rules, which have failed to materialise
8. The promised abolition of unfair evictions in 2019 which is yet to be delivered.

Conference calls for a Fair Deal for housing, one which meets the aspirations of young people to own a home, provides affordable and secure social housing for the less well off, gives those in the private rental sector the stability and security that they need to live fulfilling lives and helps the UK meet its climate change goals.

Conference believes that a national housing target for private sector homes will not deliver this Fair Deal, as:

1. The quantity, location, tenure and size of homes built by the private sector will be determined by market conditions and profitability to developers, not the needs of the population.
2. There are significant regional and local variations in housing problems and prices, which a one size-fits-all approach would not resolve.
3. There is no incentive built into targets for developers to use Modern Methods of Construction, but the building of 380,000 homes per year using traditional methods would make it impossible for the UK to meet its net-zero obligations.

Conference therefore endorses policy paper 155, Tackling the Housing Crisis, and in particular its proposals to improve housing in England by:

1. Building 150,000 social homes a year, including council houses, by the end of the next parliament.
2. Introducing a new approach to housing targets, with robust, independently-assessed local housing targets that are appropriate for the specific areas' needs, including expected population changes.
3. Introducing binding targets for affordable and social housing set by the local authority, who would be allowed to build their own social and affordable housing to meet their targets, using borrowing to do so.
4. Building ten new garden cities to tackle the housing crisis.
5. Introducing a package of measures to tackle the climate crisis including:
   1. Higher minimum standards for new builds.
   2. Insulating all Britain's homes to the highest possible EPC standard in ten years.
   3. Creating locally designed and implemented Environmental Improvement Areas.
6. Ensuring that all development has appropriate infrastructure, services and amenities in place, including, through integrating infrastructure and public service delivering into the planning process.
7. Abolishing residential leaseholds and cap ground rents to a nominal fee, so that everyone has control over their property.
8. Ensuring a fair deal for renters by:
   1. Introducing a national register and minimum standards for landlords.
   2. Extending the default tenancy to 3 years.
   3. Introducing rent smoothing for the first 3 years of a tenancy.
   4. Abolishing all eviction except where a tenant has been proven to be breaking the terms of the rental agreement.
9. Managing the impact of second homes and holiday lets by:
   1. Giving local authorities new powers to control second homes and holiday lets including new planning classes.
   2. Requiring second homeowners, holiday lets and investment property to pay their fair share of tax.
10. Ensuring our construction sector is on a sustainable footing by investing in skills, training and new technologies such as Modern Methods of Construction.
11. Encouraging meaningful community engagement in the planning process by:
    1. Legally requiring developers and councils to seek the views of underrepresented groups.
    2. xpanding Neighbourhood Planning across England.
    3. Encouraging councils to develop innovative methods of democratic engagement in the Local Plan process.
12. Creating a fairer market in land by:
    1. Reforming the Land Compensation Act so public infrastructure and housing can be delivered at a fair price.
    2. Extending the Commercial Landowner Levy to land that has planning permission.
    3. Ensuring full transparency in the market for developable land.

Applicability: England only; except 5. b) (lines 74-75), which is Federal.

Mover and summation: 16 minutes combined; movers and summation of any amendments: 4 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see pages 110-111 of the agenda.

The deadline for amendments to this motion is 13.00 Monday 11 September. Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Monday’s Conference Daily. The deadline for requests for separate votes is 09.00 on Sunday 24 September.

In addition to speeches from the platform, voting members will be able to make concise (maximum one minute) interventions from the floor during the debate on the motion. See pages 109 and 111 of the agenda for further information.

Amendments

Drafting

The FCC has agreed to make the following drafting amendment to the motion:

In 7. (line 82) after ‘and cap ground rents’, insert ‘on commonhold and commercial leaseholds’.

Amendment One

PASSED

Submitted by: Young Liberals and 149 members
Mover: Janey Little.          
Summation: Cllr Stephen Robinson.

Delete lines 44 to 56 and insert:

Conference maintains its commitment to a national housing target of 380,000 new homes per year, to set a clear direction of travel and to indicate serious intent to address the housing crisis.

Conference believes that local housing targets need to exist as part of delivering an overall national target; local and central government share responsibility for delivering the housing we desperately need. Local Planning Authorities should co-operate at regional or sub-regional level to ensure that they deliver homes where they are needed.

Conference agrees that Liberal Democrats should put in place detailed policies to address the ongoing national failure to build enough homes. Only with an ambitious response to the housing crisis can people in desperate housing need have a realistic ambition to buy or rent the home they need.

In 2. (lines 62–65) delete ‘with robust …’ to ‘… population changes’ and insert ‘that translates the national target into achievable local targets, creating sustainable communities and rewarding local authorities that support the housing growth agenda’.

Amendment Two

PASSED

Submitted by: ALDC
Mover: Cllr Chris White.                                                                                      
Summation: Cllr Lucy Nethsingha.

After H. (line 37), insert:

Around 1 million homes already have planning permission and are not yet built, with another 1 million homes in local plans that have not yet reached the planning stage.

After 12. (line 117), insert:

13.    Encouraging development of existing brownfield sites with financial incentives and ensuring that affordable and social housing is included in these projects.

14.    Introducing ‘use-it-or-lose-it planning permission’ for developers who fail to develop land that has been given full planning permission.

15.    Strengthening the investment in infrastructure works to free up sites where permission has been agreed.

16.    Ensuring that when offices are converted to residential properties through permitted development the local planning authority has the power to insist social and affordable housing is included.

17.    Ensuring vacant land and buildings in public ownership can be prioritised for development projects which deliver public good socially, economically or environmentally by:

a)      Giving councils the power to mandate that public land is developed for social housing only.

b)     Introducing guidance for central government departments and arms-length bodies to ensure social value is factored in when publicly owned assets are sold off.

Amendment Three

PASSED

Submitted by: 50 members
Mover: Joshan Parmar.   
Summation: Emma Munday.

In II. (line 8), after ‘property’ insert: ‘while other policies such as cuts to stamp duty have increased demand for homes without increasing the supply, exacerbating the crisis’.

After iii) (line 56), insert:

iv)      Our built environment has a huge impact on our climate. And less land-hungry forms of building are more sustainable and can help us meet our carbon targets, for example making more optimal use of land (including brownfield sites) and better use of existing homes.

v)       Many communities want to build more homes and need to see localist, community-focused solutions that give local people reasons and the powers to say yes to development.

After 8. d) (line 93), insert:

e)      Giving social tenants more powers to run ballots, giving them greater opportunity and control, including the possibility to back new social homes.

After 11. c) (line 109), insert:

d)     Exploring methods for communities to back new developments, including giving residents of streets the ability to support more homes on their street.

After 12. c) (line 117), add:

d.     Continue and, if successful, expand trials of Community Land Auctions to ensure that local communities receive a fair share of the benefits of new development in their areas and to help fund vital local services

13.    Exploring methods to encourage the sustainable use of existing buildings to allow people to make the most of their home, whilst complying with all relevant local plan requirements.