Foot on the Housing Ladder becoming a Real Handful

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th Jun 2007

Romsey MP Sandra Gidley has welcomed radical proposals by the Liberal Democrats to tackle the severe shortage of affordable and social housing, following news that on average Hampshire residents have to pay nine and a half times their annual salary to buy a property.

Sandra said:

"There are a million and a half families on council waiting lists nationally, yet fewer and fewer social rented homes are being built. The number nationally has halved since Labour came to power.

"Meanwhile houses to buy are becoming ever less affordable. House prices in Hampshire have increased by 5% in 2006 while earnings have only increased by just over 2%. The statistics show that an average house now costs nearly nine and a half times annual, average earnings in Hampshire."

"There's no way most young people, including many young couples, can afford such high prices. Locally, many young people are being left stranded, unable get on the housing ladder as prices soar further and further out of their reach."

"The Liberal Democrat proposal of 100,000 new social, low cost and affordable houses every year for 10 years, would deliver the UK's most ambitious home-building programme in over a quarter of a century and benefit those in need of affordable housing."

"This is the housing revolution that people in Hampshire and across the country desperately need."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Liberal Democrat proposals include:

• Building 100,000 new affordable, social and low cost homes each year

• Devolving and reforming the planning system to make decisions faster and more effective for all parties

• Introducing equity mortgages to ensure that affordable housing is built and maintained for the benefit of generations of buyers

• Building smaller social housing developments which are integrated with private housing

• Cutting VAT on housing renovations and repairs

The proposals were announced by Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell in a speech on June 14th and form part of the party's Poverty and Inequality policy paper, which will be published shortly and debated and voted on at the party conference in September.

For further information on the Liberal Democrat proposals see www.libdems.org.uk.