HOUSE ABOUT THAT
Labour reveals five step plan for housing including new help for first-time buyers
It comes ahead of a General Election taking place in weeks
THE LABOUR Party has pledged a major shake up to housing including new help for struggling first-time buyers.
Sir Keir Starmer today launched in Manchester with a swathe of proposed changes which would come into place if it wins the General Election next month.
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The Labour Party would deliver the "biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation".
It added it would demand more from developers by shaking up planning obligations to ensure new developments provide more affordable homes.
It pledged to prioritise the building of new social rented homes and better protect existing stock by reviewing the increased right to buy discounts introduced in 2012.
The document said it would work with local councils to offer first-time buyers the chance to buy homes and "end the farce of entire developments being sold off to international investors".
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It also vowed introduce a mortgage guarantee scheme to ensure first-time buyers can buy homes with lower deposit amounts.
It added Labour would ensure more housing stock is built without damaging the environment.
The 125-page document also confirmed the Labour Party would take "decisive action" to improve building safety through new regulation.
And it promised to review how to better protect leaseholders, who don't own the land they live on and can be stung with sky-high service charges and ground rent.
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The document said it would bring an end to the "feudal" leasehold system and "take further steps" to ban the construction of new leasehold flats.
It also said the party would tackle unregulated and "unaffordable" ground rent charges as well as "unfair" maintenance costs.
Lizzy Galbraith, a political economist at abrdn, said housing targets such as those set out by Labour “are very ambitious – even with planning reform”.
Mark Booth, co-founder of SME house builder Hayfield, said that “tweaking the current system isn’t enough”.
He added: “We need to find a solution that incentivises local planning authorities to deliver housing in all areas of the country.”
At the Labour manifesto launch, Sir Keir Starmer…
- Ruled out raising income tax, national insurance, or VAT
- Committed to keeping the pensions triple lock, which increases the state pension each year in line with the highest of inflation, earnings or 2.5%
- Promised a benefits shake-up, working with local authorities to get more disabled and sick people back into employment.
- Pledged to remove the ‘discriminatory’ age bands affecting the National Minimum Wage
- Vowed to ban advertising junk food to children along with the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16
- Promised to hike defence spending to 2.5% of GDP
- Promised to slap VAT on private schools to fund 6,500 new teachers
- Pledged to build 1.5million new homes
Labour's manifesto launch comes just two days after the Tory Party launched its own one.
Speaking at Silverstone race track, Rishi Sunak pledged to halve immigration and also offered help for first-time buyers.
The PM said: "Now is the time for bold action - not an uncertain Sir Keir Starmer as our Prime Minister.
"Labour left Britain on the brink of bankruptcy.
"Labour offer no solutions to our problems, they would only make things worse.
"There is a clear choice at this election.
"We are the only party putting bold action on the table to transform our country."
Mr Sunak promised to abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers, which would benefit 200,000 Brits.
It would mean renters looking to buy their first home avoiding paying tax on homes bought for under £425,000.
Stamp duty is currently paid on homes worth more than £250,000 with the rate ranging from 5% to 12% of the price depending on the value of the property.
The threshold for first-time buyers was temporarily raised from £300,000 to £425,000 by Liz Truss in the September 2022 mini-budget but had been due to expire next March.
But addressing an audience of Conservative faithfuls on Tuesday, the PM pledged to keep the raised threshold permanently.
He said: “In the last five years, we have delivered one million new homes.
“In the next five years, we will deliver 1.6million new homes by building on brownfield land and scrapping EU laws.
“We Conservatives believe in tax cuts, for young families and first-time buyers, up to £425,000, we will will abolish stamp duty entirely.
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“We will set up a new help to buy scheme… so more people have the security and pride of owning your own home.
"From Macmillan to Thatcher, it is Conservatives that are the family of the property owning democracy in this country."
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