Inside Housing – Home – Liberal Democrats’ manifesto pledges 380,000 homes per year

The party would reintroduce requirements for landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties to have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of C or above by 2028 – plans which were scrapped by the Conservatives. 
The Liberal Democrats said it will end rough sleeping within the next parliament and immediately scrap the “archaic” Vagrancy Act. It pledged to give “sufficient financial resources” to councils to deliver the Homelessness Reduction Act and provide accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse.
In response to the manifesto, Kate Henderson, chief executive at the National Housing Federation, said the pledge to deliver 150,000 social homes per year is welcome. 
“This is a commitment which recognises the scale of the housing crisis and the central role an ambitious programme of social housebuilding must play in any government response,” she said. 
However, Ms Henderson added that “making these plans a reality will require long term and significant support from government”, as well as “collaboration with a social housing sector that is operating in a difficult environment”. 
She said: “The scale of the challenge must not be underestimated.
“Ahead of the next election, we are calling on all parties to grasp the urgent need for a nationally co-ordinated and fully funded long-term plan for housing.” 
Dan Wilson Craw, deputy chief executive of Generation Rent, said the manifesto is positive but “some of its solutions are unclear”.
He said: “A commitment to immediately ban no-fault evictions is a good first step. However, the commitment to three-year tenancies by default is confusing – it is not clear whether tenants could move home within the three years if their circumstances change, or if landlords would need a reason to evict at the end of the period. 
“The abolition of no-fault evictions must be paired with open-ended tenancies to provide tenants with both security and flexibility.”
Mr Wilson Craw said a national register of landlords is “essential”, but he added that specifying ‘licensed landlords’ “begs the question of whether the party would require all landlords to be licensed as well, or just apply the register to the roughly 7% of landlords who currently need a licence”.
He added: “The manifesto contains positive proposals with the potential to improve the affordability and quality of rented homes. 
“However, without a more comprehensive offer of reform to renting, including limits to rent increases, renters will continue to suffer from the same imbalance of power with our landlords that has undermined our security for so long, and this must be addressed by the next government.”



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