Liberal Democrat Conference to debate Rugby’s housing call

Tune in at 11am next Tuesday (22 September 2015) to watch the Liberal Democrat conference debate Britain's housing policy.

Alongside proposals for the government to sponsor new house building including at least ten new "Garden Cities" in England there are proposals to give local authorities greater powers to build affordable housing and tackle empty homes on their patch. This would give local authorities the power to charge double Council Tax on second homes in areas of housing shortage.

A proposed addition to these housing policies has been put forward by the Rugby party. The national party has accepted that this Rugby amendment should be debated.

The Rugby party is calling for councils to be given the power to stop property speculators "land banking" planning permission by sitting on land which has received approval for housing and just waiting for the price to rise.

The Rugby amendment also highlights the University of the West of England's report on the amount of brownfield land available for housing (capable of taking an additional one million houses) and calls for government support to ensure that these sites are developed - see rugby.lib.dm/a6Q2d.

Britain's farm land should only be taken for housing as a last resort when all other avenues have been explored first.