£1.4 billion pledge to bring empty homes into use (Croydon Liberal Democrats)

Croydon Liberal Democrats <yourviews@croydonlibdems.org.uk>

£1.4 billion pledge to bring empty homes into use

April 5, 2010 12:00 AM

Terrace street © freeimageslive/gratuit under a Creative Commons License A Liberal Democrat government will create a £1.4 billion fund to bring empty homes back into use. Councils and housing associations would be able to bid for a share of a £1 billion fund to create 100,000 social homes and they would have a say in how this money is spent.

The remaining £400 million will be made available as low-cost loans to improve 150,000 private homes.

Croydon North Parliamentary Candidate Gerry Jerome says: "Successive governments have failed to provide the housing that this country needs. Almost two million families are languishing on the housing waiting list, with thousands of children growing up in temporary accommodation. Meanwhile, the housing charity Shelter have recently published research demonstrating that high housing costs force young couples from starting a family, push people into taking on more debt than they can afford, and are a major source of stress and depression.

"It is clear that Labour and the Conservatives' failure to build enough social and affordable housing is having a huge impact on our society, and we absolutely have to get to grips with this problem. The best way to make housing more affordable is to increase supply to try and keep up with demand. I am therefore proud that the Liberal Democrats are so far the only party heading into this general election promising to spend significant amounts of money on providing more homes.

"Our plan is to specifically focus on empty homes. Everyone knows an empty property which is bringing down their street or area and attracting anti-social behaviour. These properties are a gross insult to those families without a home. The Liberal Democrats' £1.4billion empty homes fund would bring a quarter of a million homes back into use, creating 65,000 jobs and lifting up whole communities scarred by empty and derelict property. This fund is part of Nick Clegg's plan to redirect government spending towards projects that create jobs and build up Britain's infrastructure.

"Of course, we also need to build new homes but, at a time when public spending is tight, it makes sense to focus on empty property so as to get additional homes on the market quickly and cheaply. Bringing homes back into use before building new ones also has enormous environmental benefits, as refurbishment uses less resources and makes use of property currently going to waste.

"Providing more housing will continue to be a top priority for the Liberal Democrats. It is my hope that, by pledging to invest significant amounts of money in housing, the Liberal Democrats are throwing down a challenge to the other parties to do the same."