As the General Election draws ever closer, with us now being less than 48 hours until the polling stations open for UK adults to cast their vote over the future leader of the country, it’s important that you fully understand what each party stands for. Whilst we all have a general idea as to what each party is, or isn’t, campaigning for, few of us take the time to understand the specifics. What do, however, the main parties have to say (or promise) on the topic of housing if they win? Below, we take a look at the housing policies of our main parties candidates…
Labour
If Labour get into power this week, it looks to be the case that they’re more focussed upon those in rental property than anything else. Ed Milliband’s party have state that they’ll look set to introduce standard three-year tenancies, a cap on rent rises, a national landlord register and a ban on letting agent fees being imposed upon tenants. Great if you’re renting but what about those wanting to buy?
An annual housebuilding target of 200,000 has been set by Labour and they are set to double the number of first time buyers by 2025.
Conservative
If we end up with a Conservative government come the end of the week, we can expect to see an extension on the ‘equity loan’ part of the Help To Buy scheme until at least 2020 as well as the introduction of a 20% discount scheme for first time buyers under the age of 40. It certainly looks to be the case that they’re out to help more young people buy their first home, offering financial help in a number of ways.
The Conservative Party look set to also boost housing supply through a range of schemes, such as the first garden city and town for nearly 100 years that will create 28,000 new family homes.
For those who rent, they’ve pledged 10,000 rental properties below market rent.
Liberal Democrats
If we see a Liberal Democrat government come the end of the week, we can expect at least 300,000 new properties to be built each year, with plans including at least 10 new garden cities. Stephen Williams, DCLG spokesperson for the Lib Dems has recently stated, “To maximise total house building we will work with housing providers to design new models of affordable housing, to sit alongside the traditional social rented sector, including models that offer a path to ownership for lower income working families.”
Lib Dem look set to also incentivise social landlords to reduce the number of tenants who under-occupy properties, to scrap the bedroom tax and introduce a mansion tax.
With only a few days to go until we know who our next Government will be led by, what is for certain is that all parties, at this stage, look to be dedicated towards building new homes, with some more committed to introducing ways and means for the younger generation to afford to buy their own home than others.