Monday 17 September

09.00 Policy motion

Chair: Mary Reid. Aide: Simon McGrath. Hall Aide: Cara Jenkinson.

F23 An Affordable, Secure Home for All

10 members

Mover: Lord Shipley (Spokesperson on Housing).

Summation: Baroness Thornhill.

Conference reaffirms:

A. The right of every person to live in an affordable, secure home in

a safe environment.

B. The long-standing commitment of the Liberal Democrats to

achieve this by building 300,000 homes a year over the next

decade.

Conference notes that:

I. Homelessness is at record levels with rough sleeping rising,

large numbers of young people sofa hopping and tens of

thousands of homeless families trapped in unsuitable temporary

accommodation.

II. Over the last decade Government subsidies for rent through

housing benefit have tripled to around £25 billion (of which £10

billion goes to private landlords) when subsidies to increase the

supply of social housing have declined to around £1 billion a

year.

III. The ratio of house prices to gross average earnings per head

is at record levels of around 10 to 1 and that as a result home

ownership has become unaffordable for most young people and

for most people on average incomes.

IV. Too many people have been forced into the private rented sector

which now provides one fifth of all homes in the UK, a third of

which fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard.

V. Government policies to promote owner occupation through

taxpayer subsidies have boosted demand and house prices

without effective measures to increase supply and affordability.

VI. The number of new social homes has contracted from over

200,000 a year at its peak to the unacceptable level of just 1,400

social home starts in 2017/18.

46 AGENDA AUTUMN CONFERENCE 2018

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