Fixing Our Housing Crisis

Southwark is at the centre of London’s housing crisis. Private rents are unaffordable for ordinary people and there are now over 22,000 households on the waiting list for social housing.  

Southwark’s Labour council, Labour London Mayor and the central Labour government have overseen a collapse in council housebuilding and are letting developers avoid even the most modest affordable housing targets. The Labour council made a start on only one council home in 2025! 

Meanwhile, the quality of existing council housing is unacceptably poor, with the Regulator of Social Housing giving Southwark the second lowest national rating. With Southwark’s major works scandals regularly dominating local headlines, it’s clear that housing in Southwark is broken.

Liberal Democrats will reverse this decline by providing more and better homes for local people. Our diverse communities can’t thrive if they are priced out of the borough. We will also stand up for private and council leaseholders subject to rip-off service charges, major works bills, and fire safety certificate delays.

To fix our housing crisis, we will:

• Make sure that half of all new homes on private developments are genuinely affordable  
• Appoint a new ‘affordable housing tsar’ who can robustly challenge affordable housing plans from developers to maximise affordability 
• Build for people not investors by making sure that homes for Southwark residents are built on the little land we have left, not endless office blocks, luxury hotels and student accommodation 
• Build more council homes, reversing Labour’s years of failed delivery  
• Support residents caught up in the building safety crisis, including preventing private developers and housing associations from obtaining council procurement projects when they have not taken action to support affected leaseholders  
• Implement a 10 working day disrepair enforcement guarantee for private leaseholders  
• Set up joint scrutiny boards, running parallel with community councils, to hold building managers, housing associations and the council to account
• Work with charity sector and housing associations to provide a new generation of alms houses for older people, to provide better support for residents in their later years and free up housing for the next generation
• Provide a dedicated portal for residents to be able to report empty properties, in order for the council to take appropriate enforcement action  

Spotlight on: Housing for council tenants and leaseholders

Liberal Democrats will fix our broken housing department. We would:

• Launch an immediate and quick root-and-branch review, transforming the department into a service that puts people first. We would also roll out one-stop-shops in each neighbourhood, so that everyone can talk to a housing officer face to face. 
• Open a 24-hour hotline for tenants and leaseholders to report repairs. 
• Act urgently to tackle disrepair and damp and mould on estates. We will introduce a dedicated complex repairs team to deal with spiralling disrepair, poor maintenance, and damp and mould in council housing. 
• Act immediately to end the backlog of fire-safety certificates issued to council leaseholders. 
• Support older and disabled people by guaranteeing that adaptation assessments to council homes will happen within 2 months of an application, and ensure that the right support and equipment is available. 
• Review district heating systems to ensure that they are fit for purpose, that bills are transparent and accurately reflect use and value for money. 
• Overhaul the homeownership department so that service charges are accurate, timely, transparent, and represent genuine value for money.