Election countdown: the Conservatives and Labour's position on housing
Having watched Mishal Husain chair the BBC's head-to-head election debate between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer I was surprised that housing was only touched upon briefly, notably when You:Gov data suggest the electorate is increasingly focused on the issue, with its importance rising from 9% in May 2020 to 24% in June 2024 (the most important issues facing the country (yougov.co.uk) (This focus was even sharper in the minds of younger voters with 39% of 18-24-year-olds recently placing the issue in their top 3 concerns).
At the time of writing it’s only a week before the UK goes to the polls on 4th July and in the run up to the election, despite the odd vote-targeted announcement around the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme or First Time Buyer SDLT Reliefs, it has been an issue that neither party has focused on.
Below we summarise the key positions of the Labour and Conservative parties on what I see as one of the most important issues for the next Government (whatever its colour) to address:
| Conservatives | Labour | |
|
Headline number of Homes to be built |
1.6 Million over 5 years | 1.5 Million over 5 years |
| How |
Abolish EU nutrient neutrality rules to immediately unlock the building of 100,000 new homes, with developers required to pay a one-off mitigation fee.
Raise density levels in inner London to comparable European cities (Paris, Barcelona etc.).
Ensure local authorities use the new infrastructure levy to deliver assets needed in connection with housing including GP surgeries and roads.
Lift S106 burdens for smaller sites and schemes and assist local and smaller builders by requiring Councils to set land aside for them.
|
Implementing extensive planning reforms.
Reintroduce mandatory local housing targets.
Reform and strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
Building a “new generation of new towns”.
Lower compulsory purchase order costs to bring forward land assembly and to help deliver land for housing use, but also infrastructure, amenity, and transport land needed for housing schemes. Creating specific types of development schemes where landowners will be awarded compensation without reference to hope value.
Implement solutions to unlock the building of new homes affected by nutrient neutrality, without weakening environmental protections. |
| Focus Locations |
A renewed focus on brownfield development including a fast-track route through the planning system for new homes on previously developed land in the UK’s 20 largest cities.
Retaining a “cast-iron commitment” to protection of the Green Belt from “uncontrolled development”. |
Whilst there should be a focus on brownfield regeneration there should also be selective development within the green belt, striking a balance between environmental considerations by unlocking the ‘grey belt’ land (pockets of green-belt land that are not nature-rich and beautiful, but scrubby and unloved.) |
| Collaboration and Partnership | Create locally-led urban development corporations (partnerships between the private sector and institutional investors), including in Leeds, Liverpool, York and Cambridge (the “Cambridge 2050” plan). | Introduce a strategic planning mechanisms to deliver cross-boundary strategic planning. In short, all combined and Mayoral Authorities will have to strategically plan for housing growth in their areas. |
| Support of the Local Planning Authorities planning teams | No key commitments to resource underfunded planning services or strengthen the local plan-making process. | Deliver a 300 person increase in headcount to LPA's planning teams during the 5 year parliamentary term. |
| Affordable Housing |
Renewing the Affordable Homes Programme, under which developers can obtain grant funding to deliver affordable housing. |
Strengthening planning obligations to ensure that new developments provide more affordable homes.
Changing the Affordable Homes Programme to ensure delivery of more homes from existing funding. |
|
First time buyer support |
Retain the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme
Keep the First Time Buyer SDLT threshold at £450,000 (previous rate £300,000)
Revive Help to Buy (provision of equity loans of up to 20% of cost of new build home and 5% deposits)
Introduce a 2 year CGT relief window where Landlords can sell properties to existing tenants. |
Introduce a “permanent, comprehensive” Mortgage Guarantee Scheme. |
The headline housing targets both indicate a desire to get Britain building again, and both require delivery of a minimum of 300,000 homes per year. Whilst the aspiration is admirable, we have to face facts that no parliament since 1974 has delivered over 200,000 homes and the figures over the last four parliaments, though generally trending in the right direction (2010 - 116,000 homes, 2015 - 146,000 homes, 2017 – 171,000 homes and 2019 - 161,000 homes), have been significantly short of that mark.
There are many in the industry that will view the reintroduction of mandatory local housing targets as a key step in refocusing LPA’s accountability for the delivery of homes within their boundaries, and others that have suffered years of planning delays and frustrations with sites tied up with nitrate, phosphate or water neutrality issues will welcome the promise to see those potential homes released for development.
It seems though that neither party has promised the level of investment in the staffing behind the planning system some commentators see as essential to create a fully functioning planning service that can deliver policy consistent planning decisions within a reasonable timeline. With both parties advocating the need for planning reforms during the next parliament, the importance of such investment, to my mind, increases significantly.
The issue though remains a thorny one to grapple with. Even if we were to see the required housing numbers coming through the planning system there remains the absence of skilled labour to deliver the necessary homes to hit the housing targets, and of course the properties delivered need to be affordable. With interest rates remaining stubbornly high, it will perhaps not be until the economy is regularly growing in a sustainable manner that The Bank of England will feel that we are truly on top of the inflationary pressures that have put many potential homeowners’ dreams of home ownership on hold (whether as a result of the struggle to save for a deposit or the unaffordability of mortgages due to high interest rates). It is likely, therefore, that the party the public backs to deliver a growing and skilled economy will (notwithstanding the above manifesto promises) also be the party the public trusts to get to grips with the housing crisis and deliver on the promise of homeownership for the majority.
