With a general election in May or October 2024, and a clearly broken housing policy, residents are asking what might change. Whilst we may not know what the three main political parties will say exactly on the run-up to the election, we do know what they have all said and committed to during the October 2023 political party conference season, which is likely to be close to what they will commit to at an election.
In an ideal world all new houses would be affordable, well designed, well built and environmentally sustainable. Yet history tells us that simply hasn’t been the case in the past, both in terms of lack of Government policy and delivery by housing developers. In fact a Government report indicated that, of all the new housing developments built since 2014, over 40% were regarded by their owners as being of poor build quality.
The current Government’s delays in implementing low-carbon building regulations have clearly benefited housebuilders and property developers by billions of pounds over the last eight years, while UK households shoulder the cost of soaring energy bills amid the energy crisis. The building sector, a significant Conservative donor overall, has saved at least £15bn since 2015 by building homes to continuing ‘old’ standards, without the solar panels and batteries, heat pumps and effective insulation that all new house buyers are seeking, as a Guardian investigation recently found.
As a result, many Britons live in new-build homes that, despite having been constructed in the past few years, are not just of poor build quality but also far from futureproof. Renters and homeowners are still moving into brand-new properties that run on gas boilers and lack anything other than top grade insulation. This leaves these householders vulnerable to climbing energy bills and increased insulation and other retrofitting costs.
New houses should be as close to carbon neutral as is practically possible, as well as being cheap to heat in winter and keep cool in summer, and adapt easily to family, couples or retirement living requirements. Of course many can’t afford a new home, so residents also want to know how the current poor state of affairs and protection for those renting might be different if they vote for an alternative political party this time round.
So let’s take a quick look at how the political party’s past records and future commitments stack up.
Conservatives
- New housing target is set by PM or Ministers rather than with consultation with Party Members
- Target of 200,000 Starter Homes by 2020 at 20% price discount. Program axed 2017 with zero built
- Government gives developers at least 20% margin on every new home built as part of its NPPF
- Target is to build 300,000 new homes a year and 1 million in total. Neither target has been delivered
- The type of housing built has been driven not by needs but what housing developers want to build
- More centralised Government control on new housing locations than is proposed by other parties
- Current Help to Buy scheme extension plan is predicted to inflate local property prices further
- Right to Buy scheme for Housing Association tenants has been promised but still not launched
- 33,550 homes allocated for social rent but with a social housing waitlist of over 1 million households
- Sustainable homes energy efficiency standards axed 2020: claimed smaller builders couldn’t deliver
- New rules on upgrading all rental properties to an EPC band C delayed yet again (now April 2025)
- No England program to retro-fit insulation to current homes (Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland has this)
- Continuing refusal to enforce a ban on no fault rental evictions with landlords (as of October 2023)
- Failed to deliver a Jan 2023 pledge to end the leasehold system and convert to a commonhold system
- Failed to deliver a crack-down on short-term and holiday lets in England, yet in place in Wales & Scotland
Liberal Democrats
- New housing target is the only one voted for by all Lib Dem Members at annual conference
- 150,000 new ‘social homes’ (affordable and social housing) a year by parliament end (5 years)
- Additional target of 190,000 homes based on developer free market economics but tighter controls
- Rather than current ribbon development, build 10 new garden cities to help tackle the housing crisis
- New powers for Councils to build social and affordable housing (current max is 99 council houses)
- 10 year emergency programme to insulate all of Britain’s homes to cut household energy bills
- New standards to ensure new homes are warm, cheap to heat and produce minimal emissions
- Ensuring developers build appropriate infrastructure needed for new housing developments
- Abolishing leaseholds for residential properties and ending ground rents by cutting to a nominal fee
- Fairer rental deals: longer default tenancies, rent smoothing over tenancy and no fault eviction ban
- New powers for local authorities to control and manage second homes and holiday lets
- Expansion of Neighbourhood Planning and more democratic engagement in Local Plans
- Reforming Land Compensation Act to ensure land can be bought at a fair price e.g. CLTs, self-build
- Extend a proposed Commercial Landowner Levy to land with planning permission, but not yet built
Labour
- New housing target set by Ministers rather than with consultation with Party Members
- Labour has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes in the next parliament (300,000 a year)
- There is no specific affordable homes element of the 300,000 a year new house target
- Updating planning laws to help local authorities have more say in what is built and where
- Aim for 70% home ownership (no target date given) via mortgage guarantee scheme
- Increasing stamp duty surcharge for any foreign investors that buy homes in England
- National Warm Homes Plan so every home meets an EPC C standard within a decade
- Plans to give local authorities and devolved governments more resources to help with the upgrades
- Renters’ Charter will end no-fault evictions, allow pets and allow reasonable alterations to a property
- Introduce a four month notice period for landlords and ends automatic evictions for rent arrears
BVAG 