Details arrive at the Voice of a launch of our General Election housing policy:

The Liberal Democrats today set out plans to bring a quarter of a million empty homes back into use, making homes available for people who need them and creating 65,000 jobs.

There are over 760,000 empty properties across England which are no longer used as homes but can be brought back into use with some investment. People who own these homes will get a grant or a cheap loan to renovate them so they can be used: grants if the home is for social housing, loans for private use.

The plans form part of the economic stimulus package outlined as a core principle of the Liberal Democrat election manifesto. In the first year of the new Parliament, the party would redirect over £3.6bn of spending to create jobs and build up Britain’s infrastructure. In the following years this money will be redirected to other Lib Dem spending priorities and reducing the structural deficit.

This is excellent news, and win-win-win-win territory. Homeless families win – increasing the housing stock makes it easier to find a home. Owners of empty properties win because it helps them turn a burden into an asset. It’s good for the environment because restoring existing properties is more carbon-efficient than building new homes from scratch, and because it can help councils resist green-belt development and new land take for housing. Providing more housing in existing communities also helps with transport and infrastructure planning. Local authorities win because occupied homes pay council tax, whilst empty ones often don’t. And it’s a win for employment and jobs since getting 750,000 homes up to standard is going to take a lot of employees to do.

And as well as all those wins, it’s a good thing for all those of us living in streets with empty homes that make our streets look deserted. And if, like me, you’re living in a semi-detached house with no neighbour, it would be good news for my heating bill not to have a cold empty house leaching my heat by conduction through the party wall!

Perhaps we could go a little further? Currently there is no statutory responsibility for councils to tackle empty homes in their areas and for many, this is not a priority. Where they exist, Empty Homes Officers can often have a huge workload and have to concentrate their efforts into the worst, most dangerous properties in their areas, whilst the more easily relettable ones lie empty. And the longer they’re empty the harder it will eventually be to bring them back into use.

Existing powers such as Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) are unwieldy and seldom used. They have numerous failings as this piece by Peter Black from Freedom Central explains. And even when councils are minded to use them, they are an expensive tool which must be funded from existing resources. Manchester councillor Iain Donaldson has called for greater central funding to be available to help use EDMO legislation more widely.

One final useful link: if there’s an empty home in your street, you can report it using Shelter’s ReportEmptyHomes.com website. It will take details from you about where the home is and pass them onto your local authority. If your council is on the ball, they can respond with what they are doing about that property to bring it back into use.

Good morning afternoon and welcome to Daily View on a largely uneventful day in history. 152 years ago today, Napoleon III wasn’t assassinated. It’s the day Martin Niemöller was born, the author of the words about Holocaust victims, “First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out.”

Today Richard Briers, Faye Dunaway and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are celebrating birthdays, and we remember Lewis Carroll’s death.

2 Big Stories

Haiti victim search

All the papers lead today with news of the continuing search for survivors amongst the debris following the massive earthquake in Haiti.

Times: Race against time for Haiti earthquake aid
Telegraph: Race to save thousands of lives
Daily Mail: Haiti razed to the ground: Horrifying new pictures reveal extent of earthquake destruction
Guardian: International teams join Haiti rescue operation

Ten years of Popbitch

The Indy reports how a cult internet newsletter changed gossip magazines forever.

In the site’s early years, the Beckhams were quinteIn the site’s early years, the Beckhams were quintessential Popbitch fodder. Known to the mailout’s recipients as “Derek” (David was introduced as “Derek” at an event in the US in 2003 and the name stuck) and “Skeletor”, Posh and Becks produced some of the site’s most famous – and notorious – scoops. In 2002, Popbitch was the first to report that Victoria was pregnant with the couple’s second son, Romeo. It published allegations of David’s infidelity 18 months before the tabloids. And a regular Popbitch poster broke the news of the footballer’s move from Manchester to Madrid more than four months before the mainstream press had the story.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• Cameron = Data

James Graham is trying to get proper credit for his suggestion last week that David Cameron’s new airbrushed pictures look a little like Data from Star Trek

• Threat of benefit cuts to cancer patients unacceptable

Ming Campbell comments on a dubious policy that needs reform.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

The calendar and the clock are marching ever on, and whilst it might feel like you’ve barely blinked since Christmas, important deadlines in the Conference office are fast approaching.

LDV have booked a big room for a conference fringe event on the Friday night and we have until the 15th to decide how much information to put in the conference pack about the Exciting Secret Project our boffins and wonks are collaborating on late into the night. We’re of course stuck between a pillar and post – will the event be so massively oversubscribed we might need to remove walls, like our Obama event a year ago – or will there be only a handful of people as the Rally massively overruns and takes all our punters, as at our “Campaigning after Rennard” last September.

But talking about the fringe venue booking deadline is a little self indulgent when the vast majority of conference-goers won’t be organising fringe events.  Two rather more important deadlines are also fast approaching.

Motion and registration deadlines

An email from Conference office gives all the information you need:

To submit a motion for spring conference, a motions submission form is available online, which explains who can submit motions – the main routes are by local parties and by any ten elected reps. Simply download and submit your motion for the Federal Conference Committee to consider by 12 noon on 13 January 2010.

For further details on how you can take part in conference, visit our new Democracy in Action web page for information on voting, speaking and submitting motions and questions at conference. The site also includes a useful guide on how to write a better motion.

Don’t forget: There are still great savings to be made before 17.30 on 20 January 2010 if you have not yet registered for spring conference 2010. Visit www.libdems.org.uk/spring_conference for more information and to register.

Information for journalists

If you’re on the party’s press release list you will have seen recently that the deadline for free press accreditation is also coming up soon. If you want to register for free as a journo, you need to get this form (PDF) completed before the 1st February. You don’t get too much for your free pass – you’ll have to pay extra if you want access to a desk, a chair and two power sockets.