You can read about the Conservative Party's manifesto here and the Labour Party's manifesto here.
Their main pledge in relation to housing is to build at least 100,000 homes for social rent each year.
This will be done in part by taking advantage of ‘historically low interest rates’ in order to increase borrowing for investment. Their manifesto commits to a ‘responsible and realistic £130 billion package of additional infrastructure investment’.
Part of this £130 billion budget will be used to fund the construction of the 100,000 homes for social rent.
The Liberal Democrats have committed to increase the total supply of homes to 300,000 a year. They intend to do this by 2024.
The manifesto includes a commitment to direct spending on housebuilding from the £130 billion capital infrastructure budget, to ensure that this 300,000 figure is reached.
In order to tackle the climate emergency, the party will require all new homes and non-domestic buildings to be zero-carbon by 2021 and ‘Passivhaus’ standard by 2025.
They will also implement an ‘emergency ten-year programme’ which will be supported by investing over £6 billion a year on home insulation and zero-carbon heating by the fifth year of the parliament.
Similar to Shared Ownership, the manifesto pledges to introduce a new social housing model called Rent to Own. The model will allow tenants to acquire an increasing stake in their property through rent payments, leading to them owning the property outright after 30 years.
In the ‘Power for Communities’ section the manifesto states that more decision-making power will be devolved over ‘key levers of economic development’ including housing.
There is no further information regarding what this might entail.
Other pledges that might affect housing supply are the party’s proposals to:
The main focus of their housing proposals is on their pledge to provide 100,000 homes for social rent each year. According to recent government figures, there were just under 6,300 social rent homes built over the last year. This is clearly therefore an ambitious target - the achievement of which will most likely require significant funding.
The party have also retained their pledge from the previous election to increase the overall level of housing supply to 300,000 homes a year. This is also ambitious but reflects the direction of current government policy.
In order for this commitment to be delivered, significant intervention is required. An additional 60,000 homes on top of what we are already building each year is needed. Therefore, a dramatic increase in the number of sites that are allocated for development will be necessary. To this end, it is notable that the manifesto does not pledge to protect the Green Belt.
In addition to the challenges that the Liberal Democrats would face with overall delivery, perhaps one of the harder challenges will be delivering the promised 100,000 homes for social rent, without reducing the delivery of other types of affordable and private housing. If subsidies are increased for social rent housing, there is a risk that the provision of other types of housing will fall.
The impact of the proposed environmental credentials for new buildings could also have unintended consequences on housebuilding in lower value areas – precisely where the jobs generated from housebuilding are needed. In locations where the financial viability of schemes is marginal, the requirement to build zero-carbon homes and in due course ‘Passivhaus’ standard homes could mean that many schemes become non-viable, acting as a break on supply.
Whether or not the Liberal Democrats are in government after the election, the manifesto highlights the fact that they have committed to solving the housing crisis.
The levels of house building proposed will require a significant increase in the number of sites with planning permission, and that are available for development.
The Strategic Land Group specialises in delivering homes on sites of all types – greenfield, brownfield and even Green Belt.
We work with land owners to deliver planning permission on their behalf at our cost and risk. Our return is a share of the value of the site once it is sold. If we don’t succeed, it doesn’t cost you anything.
If you have a site that you think might benefit from our approach, get in touch with us today for a free, no obligation assessment.
