Jo Swinson

General Election: Liberal Democrats reveal their manifesto property promises

The Liberal Democrats are the first major political party to publish its manifesto for the December 12th General Election. And should there be another hung parliament, then the LibDems have a fighting chance of making the ‘blue-sky thinking’ within the document into law. Its online manifesto features three key housing policies which would have far reaching consequences, mainly for the private rental market. These include some ideas poached off the government but also several radical policies that other parties have steered clear of. General Election promises: Helping young people into the rental market by establishing a new Help to Rent scheme to provide government-backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30. Promoting longer, three-year compulsory tenancies and ensuring they feature inflation-linked and built-in annual rent increases to give tenants security and limit rent hikes Introduce a national, mandatory licensing scheme for landlords to weed out rogue operators. One policy not mentioned in the manifesto is a plan promoted on Twitter by its housing spokesperson and former leader, Tim Farron. In November he said the party would increase council tax five-fold for empty properties that went unoccupied for long periods of time. “People are struggling to afford good homes…

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