The Liberal Democrat party says it will use its members in the House of Lords to try to block the government’s plan to sell off housing association properties.

“Access to affordable housing affects us all because it is the entry ticket to society: to security and stability, to work, health and community” claims the new LibDem leader Tim Farron – one of only eight MPs surviving in the party.

“Housing is the biggest single issue that politicians don’t talk about. Well, we are going to talk about it, campaign on it, go on and on and on about it, and make a difference to the millions who have been ignored” he says.

“Communities up and down this country have spent 25 years building housing association homes, picking up the pieces of Mrs Thatcher’s destruction of council housing, and we will not allow David Cameron to destroy that work too.”

Farron says his party would – if in government again – lift the borrowing cap on local authorities to create an extra 300,000 homes over five years. 

LibDems would also ban the advertising of UK new-builds to overseas investors ahead of British buyers, create a government-backed housing investment bank to provide capital for new homes, and build 10 new garden cities in England including five along a so-called ‘garden cities railway route’ between Oxford and Cambridge.