Responding to a Shelter report that found England’s private renters are paying out £11 billion more a year on rent than they can afford, Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson Tim Farron said:

These shocking figures expose the Tories’ failure to tackle the housing crisis, leaving people across the country struggling with soaring rents and insecure tenancies.

The Liberal Democrats will fix the broken housing market and build a brighter future, by building at least 100,000 social homes a year.

We will limit rent hikes, strengthen protections against rogue landlords, and introduce a new Rent to Own that allows renters to gradually build up a stake in their property.

The Liberal Democrats would:

• Build at least 100,000 homes for social rent each year and ensure that total house-building increases to 300,000 each year. We will help finance the large increase in the building of social homes with investment from our £130 billion capital infrastructure budget.

• Help people who cannot afford a deposit by introducing a new Rent to Own model for social housing where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, owning it outright after 30 years.

• Promote longer tenancies of three years or more with an inflation-linked annual rent increase built in, to give tenants security and limit rent hikes.

• Improve protections against rogue landlords through mandatory licensing.