What are the parties promising for housing this election?
With the general election just a day away, we take a look at the manifesto pledges for housing from each of the main parties.
Ahead of the general election this Thursday 4 July, we've outlined the promises that each of the main parties in England are making for housing. Whomever ends up forming a Government on Friday, there are major implications for landlords, buyers, renters and sellers alike, from leasing reforms to incentives for first-time buyers. Here are the pledges for each party:
Conservatives
- Build 1.6m new homes over five years, prioritising urban and brownfield development and raising density levels in inner London
- Help first-time buyers with a new Help to Buy scheme requiring only a 5% deposit and scrap stamp duty for them for properties up to £425,000
- Complete leasehold reforms that will cap ground rents at £250, and support leaseholders affected by historic building safety problems
- Introduce a temporary measure that means landlords who sell their property to tenants will not have to pay capital gains tax
- Ban 'no-fault' evictions as part of a wider bill to reform the rental market
- Bring in rules to evict tenants from social housing after three instances of antisocial behaviour, such as noise disturbances or vandalism
Labour
- Reform the planning system and reinstate local targets to help build 1.5 million new homes over five years
- Build a new generation of new towns, fast track the approval of brownfield sites and release some green belt land for housing
- Prioritise the building of social rented homes and give first-time buyers the chance to buy homes in new developments before investors
- Introduce a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme to help first-time buyers
- Make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to extend leases and ban new leasehold flats, while tackling unregulated ground rent charges
- Ban 'no-fault' evictions and empower renters to challenge rent increases
Liberal Democrats
- Build 380,000 homes a year across the UK, with at least 150,000 new social homes, with 10 new garden cities and community-led developments
- Give local authorities powers to end Right to Buy in their areas
- Abolish residential leaseholds and cap ground rents at a nominal level
- Ban 'no-fault' evictions and make three-year tenancies the default
- Introduce a 10-year emergency upgrade programme to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat
- End rough sleeping by 2029 and scrap the Vagrancy Act that criminalises many forms of homelessness in England and Wales
Reform UK
- Reform the planning system, with fast-track decisions and tax incentives to develop brownfield sites
- Increase use of new construction technology such as modular construction
- Prioritise local people and those who have paid into the system for social housing, not foreign nationals
- Encourage more people to become landlords by scrapping tax changes introduced from 2017-21, known as section 24
- Make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to extend leases and buy freeholds
- Scrap the Renters (Reform) Bill and improve the monitoring, appeals and enforcement process for renters instead
Green Party
- Provide 150,000 new social homes a year by building or refurbishing older housing while protecting the green belt, and end the Right to Buy
- Give local authorities, social landlords and community housing groups the first option to buy certain properties at a "reasonable" rate
- Insist local authorities spread small developments across their area and and that they are accompanied by investment for local services
- Require new homes to be built to the highest energy efficiency standards
- Fund a local authority-led programme to improve insulation and install low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps in homes
- Allow local authorities to introduce rent controls and give tenants more rights, including an end to 'no-fault' evictions
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