What Are The Housing Policies of The Party’s Ahead of The Election?

The general election is set for 4 July and parties have begun to publish their manifestos with proposals on how they would run the country for the next five years.

One area that voters will focus on is the housing market. This affects all voters, from first-time buyers looking to get on the property ladder, to buy-to-let landlords and those looking to remortgage in the near future.

What the political parties offer will keenly interest many and may influence how some people vote.

To make it easy to understand what each of the main parties is offering, we’ve scoured the manifestos and summarised the main points below party-by-party.

Conservatives

The Conservatives have been in power for the past 14 years, since the days of the coalition government with the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2015. They’re aiming for an unprecedented fifth term in power and hope their housing policies will go some way to convincing voters to give them another five years.

Here’s a quick summary of what they’re proposing:

• Deliver 1.6 million homes in the next parliament
• Deliver a record number of homes each year on brownfield sites in urban areas
• Increase the threshold at which first-time buyers pay Stamp Duty to £425,000 from £300,000
• Launch a new and improved Help to Buy scheme
• Pass a Renters Reform Bill to ensure fairness for landlords and tenants in the sector

The Conservative’s proposals are intriguing and may tempt many to back the party despite them being in power for the past 14 years. Increasing the Stamp Duty threshold for first-time buyers is a tempting offer to young voters as is the promise of a new Help to Buy scheme.

However, voters may look at some of the above in a sceptical light given what was promised at the last election, which we’ve covered before. They promised to build 300,000 houses a year but research by the BBC showed they had fallen short of their targets.

Voters will be right to ask whether they can meet their goals given they failed to do so after the 2019 election. This leads to another problem the Conservatives have when it comes to housing. Why haven’t they done any of this during the last 14 years?

Most people will view the above as good proposals but may think twice about backing the party when they look at their record over the last 14 years. This is the key question for the Conservatives can they convince voters they will make the change they desire this time around?

Labour

Labour are looking to get back into power for the first time since 2010, an achievement that would be impressive given their defeat in the 2019 election was their worst since 1935.

Their housing strategy is an important part of this plan with a quick summary below:

• Build 1.5 million homes over the next parliament
• Prioritise the development of housing on brownfield sites
• Build a new generation of new towns
• Work with local authorities to give first-time buyers the first chance to buy homes
• Introduce a new mortgage guarantee scheme to support first-time buyers who are struggling to save a large deposit

Labour’s offers on housing are intriguing and while similar to the Conservatives in some areas, there are some stark differences.

Perhaps the biggest one is the pledge to build a new generation of new towns. This echoes the 1945 Attlee government, which built new towns such as Crawley and Harlow. It’s an appealing policy that could influence many renters and those looking to buy their first home to back the party.

More housing is desperately needed in the country and these plans could potentially alleviate that problem.

Likewise, the pledge to give priority to first-time buyers and introduce a new mortgage guarantee scheme are offers that will appeal to many young voters especially.

However, one problem Labour has is that they have to spell out how they will able to build 1.5 million homes over the next parliament when the Conservatives have failed to do so. Voters are likely to be sceptical of such claims since they haven’t been met in recent years.

But there’s no doubt this is an ambitious plan to shake up the housing market that will play well to Labour’s core vote and could convince many wavering voters to back them too.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats aim to improve their performance in the 2019 election by offering an intriguing range of housing policies that might convince voters to back them over the other two main parties.

Here’s a quick summary of their positions:

• Build 380,000 homes a year, including 150,000 social homes a year
• Ban no-fault evictions, make three-year tenancies the default and create a national register of landlords
• Give local authorities the power to end Right to Buy in their areas
• Abolish residential leaseholds and cap ground rents to a nominal fee
• Give communities more control over the number of second homes and short-term lets in their area

While the Liberal Democrats are unlikely to be in power following the election, their policies are intriguing.

They match the Tories and Labour in their desire to build more homes, but they have specified they will build more social homes too, unlike the other main parties. This is an important move as the social housing stock has dwindled since the introduction of the Right to Buy scheme in the 1980s.

They’re also proposing to give local authorities the power to end Right to Buy in their areas, which will be controversial. The scheme is a great way to buy your council house and get on the property ladder, but if the social housing stock isn’t replenished it can cause issues further down the line for renters.

Another interesting pledge is to abolish leasehold, which could play well with voters caught up in the cladding scandal. Whether it would work in practice is another question.

The Liberal Democrats’ policies are bold and eye-catching. Given the general disdain towards the Conservatives, these pledges could be enough to get many undecided and former Tory voters to switch to them.

Green

With one MP, the Green Party won’t be the ruling party after the next election. However, they may increase their number of MPs and play a critical role in holding the next government accountable.

Here’s a quick overview of their housing policies:

• Build 150,000 new social homes a year
• Fair Deal for Renters including rent controls, a new stable rental tenancy and an end to no-fault evictions
• Ending the individual Right to Buy scheme while introducing a community one
• Spend £29 billion over the next parliament to insulate homes to an EPC B standard or above
• Require local authorities to spread small developments across their areas

The Greens have a mix of interesting policies and ones that are harder to justify.

Building 150,000 social homes a year is an admirable goal, and one that will make a big difference to many given there were 1.29 million households on the social waiting list as of 31 March 2023.

However, their desire to bring in rent controls is a concern. As advocates of the free market here at Online Mortgage Advisor, we believe the solution to high rents is to build more houses and increase supply rather than artificially restrict the market.

Likewise, the commitment to spend £29 billion insulating houses is a noble one, but will require people to pay more in tax. With the tax burden at its highest since the end of the Second World War and the ongoing cost of living crisis, this will hit people in their pockets at a delicate time.

It’s striking there’s not much in its manifesto on building new homes apart from the social homes pledge, given that housebuilding is front and centre of the other parties’ pledges. Whether that strategy backfires or not remains to be seen.

Reform

Reform is the party headed up by Nigel Farage and is a continuation of the Brexit Party that contested the 2019 election. While they are yet to release their manifesto, they have outlined some positions regarding their housing policies:

Here’s a summary:

• Review the planning system to fast-track planning and incentivise the development of brownfield sites
• Reform social housing law to give priority to UK-born citizens
• Scrap the 2019 tax changes for landlords to encourage smaller landlords into the rental market
• Abolish the Renters’ Reform Bill and boost the monitoring, appeals and enforcement process instead
• Incentivise the use of new construction technology such as modular construction

It’s important to reiterate that Reform are yet to release its manifesto at the time of writing, but the housing policies listed on its website so far are thin on the ground.

Apart from reforming planning laws and developing brownfield sites, there’s not much to grab the attention. Given that housebuilding is a central flank of the other parties’ offers, this is an odd omission, which you’d expect to be rectified when the manifesto is published.

Reform are unlikely to win power in the election, but given they have a chance to win several seats, a stronger offering on housing would benefit them as voters head to the polls.

Who to vote for?

This will come down to personal preference and it’s not our place to tell voters who they should back at the polls.

The housing market will be a key battleground in the election and it’s striking that most parties are pledging to build more homes and targeting first-time buyers.

All the parties have interesting pledges but in reality, the contest is between Labour and the Conservatives. It’s their plans that will be implemented depending on which one wins the election.

Time will tell whether their plans near fruit or not.