It’s’ party conference time for the Liberal Democrats and the Social Liberal Forum has called on Nick Clegg to back Vince Cable’s demands for higher borrowing to fund housing, school building and infrastructure. The Forum  has expressed concern over the economy and has called for a loosening of the “straitjacket” by building at least 100,000 houses a year by 2015, including 50,000 social homes by enabling councils and housing associations to borrow and build.

“This is a bit like the “New Deal” that got the USA out of the Great Depression before the last war” says Bill Winlow. “Local Government and Housing Associations should have more power to determine their own future and also to determine their own housing priorities within a strategic planning framework”.

What is more,  Legal & General, which only entered the real estate funding market last year, has kick-started its push into the social housing sector with a £102m, 15-year loan to Hyde, one of the UK’s largest housing associations. The decision to expand its lending to housing associations will be seen as a welcome boost for the social housing sector, which has suffered sharp cuts in Government grant funding for the development of new homes (Daily Telegraph, 8th Feb).