In a surprising motion to Wednesday’s Council Liverpool’s Lib Dem Group are asking Council to back Jeremy Corbyn’s housing policy of “for the many – not the few” and have asked them ditch the housing “partnership” with Redrow Homes. In moving the motion Lib Dem Cllr for Allerton & Hunts Cross Mirna Juarez will say, “the current partnership with Redrow Homes is failing to deliver the housing that Liverpool needs. Instead of a handful of high priced homes the South Liverpool area where Redrow likes to build needs more 3 bed semis and two bed flats. In the council’s own figures in Woolton, Church, Allerton, Cressington and Mossley Hill wards there are 4,459 people living alone, many of them in substantial houses. They need two bedroomed flats to move to in the areas where they live. This would release big homes to young families. At the same time the starting price of £300,000 up to £650,000 on the Redrow Homes is way beyond the reach of young families who are continuing to leave our City. The motions’ seconder Cllr Andrew Makinson will add, “this is not a good financial deal either. The latest figures are that the cash received from Redrow to date has only assisted with the provision of 96 social homes. This is no more than would have been received in land sales and section 106 planning agreements than from any other developer and we would probably have got more for the land if separately tendered. Because so few houses are built on the land our council tax take is a lot less than if we had agreed a larger number of smaller homes”. Leaving aside the Redrow Partnership the motion also addresses the problems highlighted in local media of the sale of the freeholds of properties to greedy speculators who then hold residents to ransom with a string of charges. The motion asks for an agreement on the sale of any land by the Council that it be subject to the sale of the freehold of the land to the resident being included in the initial sale. If that is not possible the freeholds should be held by specific companies owned by the freeholders of the estate. Liberal Democrats believe that the council should not support a system whereby unsuspecting home-owners are held to ransom by greedy profiteers.
Liverpool City Council is being urged to drop its housing partnership with Redrow Homes. The council has been criticised for allowing the company to build a £1million development on land it owns in St Peter’s Square and nearby Victoria Park. The motion adds that the starting prices of £300,000 ($355,000) to £650,000 for properties are beyond the means of many young families.