This week we can report three defections to the Liberal Democrats in key councils around the country.

The first is the decision by Cllr Brian Haley, the Labour Cabinet Member for the Environment in the London Borough of Haringey, to quit his post and join the Liberal Democrats.  Haringey is a key council for the Liberal Democrats with Lynne Featherstone as one of the MPs in the area and with Labour holding a tiny overall majority on the council.  To attract such a senior councillor is a real coup for the party in the area.

The second and third defections are the husband and wife team Keith and Diane Bennett who have left the Conservatives on Cannock Chase District Council and joined the Liberal Democrats.  They are both chairs of council committees and will be a welcome addition to our growing council group.  The Liberal Democrats are the largest party on the council and also hold the leadership.

Unfortunately, a defection has also taken place in the opposite direction with Cllr David Theobald of the London Borough of Sutton moving from the Liberal Democrats to the UK Independence Party (via a week spent as an Independent).

Thank you to Cllr Matt Davies, Cllr Tony Williams and David Boothroyd respectively, for the information.

The Conservatives on Cotswold District Council are in deep water after describing local Liberal Democrat councillors as morons on Facebook.

Tory council leader Lynden Stowe and fellow councillor Chris Roberts said that local Lib Dem rivals "have a reputation... for being morons" on Facebook.  The comments were then reported to the press by friends of the councillors, rather than by any Liberal Democrat members.

Despite this, rather than apologising the Conservatives have gone on the defensive accusing the Lib Dems of stirring up trouble and complaining that Facebook must have been infiltrated by Lib Dem sympathisers.  The comments have now been reported on the BBC website, on local TV news and on the front page of the local newspaper.

Local Lib Dem Leader Paul Hodgkinson is now considering whether to report the Conservative councillors to the Standards Board for England.

In a speech to the IPPR, Conservative Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps has announced what a possible Conservative government would do to encourage more house building.  Some has been announced before, but the speech emphasised what the Conservatives believe are key.

The centrepiece is a proposal to scrap regional and national housing targets, but instead encourage councils to accept housing by increasing funding for local services.  In many respects it is similar to the current Section 106 agreements whereby developers must pay for improvements in the local area, if their planning application is approved.  However, the Conservative proposals would actually agree to allocate 100% of the council tax from any new homes (or 125% for social housing) towards improving services in that community.  The intention being that local communities would welcome new housing if they felt they were getting an actual benefit for their local area.  Grant Shapps also believes this would therefore allow councillors to campaign for more housing in their community as they would genuinely benefit, rather than having to become NIMBYs to keep on the right side of local residents.

In his speech, Grant Shapps also promoted some ideas that Liberal Democrats will welcome, such as increasing the amount of the business rates that is retained locally and ensuring that major development projects must involve the community from the beginning when being planned.  However, one thing that will concern Liberal Democrats is the suggestion that Planning Control Committees may be removed from the process completely when applications are made by Local Housing Trusts, (a Conservative idea where communities would be able to set up a trust to build affordable homes just for local residents).  In effect Local Housing Trusts would give themselves planning permission.

It is good to see the different parties actually discussing housing issues - an issue that has long been neglected - but whether these proposals will be what people who are struggling to find suitable places to live actually need, is another question.

Good news has arrived from the London Borough of Redbridge, where it has been announced that two Labour councillors have defected to us.  This increases our group there from 11 to 13 councillors.

The Liberal Democrats in Redbridge have been incredibly successful recently, with two by-election gains in Clementswood and Valentines.  With the Conservatives losing their overall majority on the council in May as a result of a number of their councillors falling out over the election of the council leader, things are looking very good for the party in next year's London elections.

Councillor Hugh Cleaver, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Redbridge Council said:

"the addition of two more experienced and able Councillors from the south of Ilford will add significantly to the strength of the Liberal Democrats on Redbridge Council. This means that the Liberal Democrats are in a strong position to make further advances in the 2010 elections. We are the fastest growing political party in Redbridge and we have shown we can play a key role in the running of the Borough for the benefit of all our residents"

For more details, visit the Redbridge Liberal Democrats website.

Conservative councils across the country are being encouraged by their parliamentary colleagues to delay major planning applications until after the next General Election.

The letter from Caroline Spelman instructs Conservative councils to continue with any legal obligations they may have, but to not push through any major schemes with undue haste.  The argument for this being that the Conservatives propose abolition or part-abolition of regional spatial strategies if they win the next General Election.  Caroline Spelman has also indicated that a Conservative Government would allow councils to review their Local Development Frameworks to remove any policies that were there due to regional strategies.

These delaying tactics are most likely to affect major commercial developments, as well as housing schemes.  Whilst this may be welcomed by Liberal Democrats in some areas, it has also been criticised by those who see an urgent need to build new housing developments.

More details are available from Regen.net and Planning Daily.