Liberal Democrats policy references
Updated April 2015
Issue
Housing
New Towns /
Garden Cities
Summary of position
Date and source
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/pol
icy_paper_121
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
1
situated between Oxford and Cambridge, and serviced
by a new rail link.
http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/ne
ws-and-events/liberaldemocrats-conference-
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.
House building
numbers
Under Liberal Democrat manifesto plans announced today, young people will be able to
buy their own home without needing a deposit.
Instead the Rent to Own scheme will help first-time buyers onto the housing ladder by
allowing them to build up a share in their home through renting.
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.
2
debrief-housing-andplanning-policy
9 October 2014
Feb 2014; Spring Conference
Motion
http://www.libdems.org.uk/lib
eral-democrats-launch-rentto-own
13 March 2015
Lib Dem Conference Sept
2014
http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/ne
ws-and-events/liberaldemocrats-conference-debriefhousing-and-planning-policy
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.
Neighbourhood
planning
Planning
General
NPPF and NPPG
Financial
incentives to
communities
Land Auctions
Right to buy
Liberal Democrat Communities Minister Stephen Williams is urging people to safeguard
their local pubs by listing them as a community asset.
As part of the recently expanded Community Rights, people can nominate buildings or
blocks of land as ‘assets of community value’, giving communities a greater say in how
their areas develop.
http://www.libdems.org.uk/cel
ebrating-our-community-pubs
4 March 2015
“We need a planning system which supports growth while protecting and enhancing
key social and environmental assets.”
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.
Liberal Democrats have announced plans to introduce a new Green Homes Bill which
would insulate up to 10 million homes by 2025.
Under the plans set out for the next Parliament, homeowners would also be offered a
Council Tax discount of at least £100 a year for ten years for making their homes
greener.
2015 Manifesto consultation
Measures to allow communities to benefit from development windfalls, including piloting
of community land auctions for publicly and privately owned land.
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 Spring motion
3
2014 Spring motion
Feb 28, 2014
http://www.libdems.org.uk/ins
ulating-10m-homes-by-2025
3 March 2015
2014 Autumn Conference
http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/ne
ws-and-events/liberaldemocrats-conference-debrief-
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).
housing-and-planning-policy
Spring Conference Motion
b) Giving planning authorities the right to require under the planning permission that
land be provided for small developers/self builders within any development larger
than 40 homes.
Brownfield
development
Strategic planning
(larger than local) –
LEPs, city deals,
core cities
Climate change
(inc flooding)
c) Using new communities to encourage greater access to land by a wide range of
providers including self and commissioned build
At the Housing the Nation fringe 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.
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 nonpolitical groups when determining final plans.
c) The partnerships also addressing economic growth and combining to deliver
infrastructure over a larger area
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.
4
http://www.ppsgroup.co.uk/ne
ws-and-events/liberaldemocrats-conferencedebrief-housing-andplanning-policy
Spring motion
Feb 28, 2014
Spring Motion
Feb 28, 2014
Planning
Inspectorate
Third party right of
appeal
Devolution of use
classes
Devolution
b) Amending building control regulations to take proper account of the rising summer
temperatures that will be caused by climate change.
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
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
Giving more power to local planning authorities to determine use classes.
Spring Conference Motion
Cornwall would enjoy greater legislative power as part of a devolution law under the Liberal
Democrats, party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined today.
http://www.newsguardian.co.u
k/news/national/lib-dems-offerpower-to-cornwall-1-7139891
6 March 2015
Embarking on a tour of Cornwall - a key Lib Dem battleground at the forthcoming general
election - Mr Clegg said a new Cornish assembly would allow the county to have a choice on
legislation for issues such as health spending and property ownership.
Infrastructure
Green
infrastructure
Transport
infrastructure
Spring 2014 Motion
“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.”
Our plans for a Green Transport Bill contain key measures to combat this, such as
promoting the use of electric vehicles, public transport and cycling.
The Green Transport Bill is one of Five Green Laws that we want to introduce in the
next parliament to ensure that pollution will continue to fall and the environment is
safeguarded for the future.
Manifesto consultation
• 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
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudf
ront.net/libdems/pages/6272/a
ttachments/original/140994164
5/PreManifesto_3_Sep_2014.pdf?14
09941645
5
http://www.libdems.org.uk/red
ucing-greenhouse-gasemissions
26 March 2015
towns and cities where local people want them.
6
Manifesto Sept 2014