GENERAL ELECTION 2024: Your Guide to Party Policies on Housing, Mortgages and Energy Efficiency
by Megan Addy – Director | Independent Mortgage & Protection Adviser @ Prism Mortgage & Protection Advice
Are you still unsure on who to vote for in the upcoming General Election on Thursday 4th July 2024? Are you thinking of basing your vote on policies around mortgages, housing or energy efficiency?
If so – We’ve got you covered. This blog takes a look at the manifestos of the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Reform UK, Scottish National Party (SNP), and Plaid Cymru to see what each party is promising for mortgages, housing and energy efficiency. These plans and promises can impact the housing and mortgage market for years to come.
Click each link below to be taken to the guide for each party:
- Conservatives
- Labour
- Liberal Democrats
- Green Party
- Reform UK
- Plaid Cymru
- Scottish National Party (SNP)
Conservatives
| Category | Pledge | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Housing Supply and Development | New Homes Delivery | Deliver 1.6 million homes in suitable locations, focus on urban regeneration and brownfield land, increase density in inner London, and regenerate major sites like Euston. |
| Energy Efficiency | Invest £6 billion over three years to make homes warmer, implement an energy efficiency voucher scheme for households. | |
| Urban Regeneration | Create urban development corporations, support local builders, and unlock new regeneration schemes in cities like Leeds and Liverpool. | |
| Green Belt Protection | Maintain planning protections for the Green Belt, ensure more homes are built in inner cities. | |
| First-Time Buyer Support | Stamp Duty Relief | Permanently abolish Stamp Duty for first-time buyers on homes up to £425,000. |
| Help to Buy Scheme | Introduce a new scheme providing an equity loan of up to 20% for new builds, allowing purchases with a 5% deposit. | |
| Mortgage Guarantee Scheme | Continue the scheme, which has helped over 40,000 households buy a home. | |
| Affordable Housing Programme | Renew the programme to deliver homes of all tenures and focus on regenerating housing estates. | |
| Tenant and Leaseholder Protections | Leasehold Reform | Cap ground rents at £250, end misuse of forfeiture, make it easier to adopt commonhold ownership. |
| Renters Reform Bill | Abolish Section 21 evictions, implement court reforms, and strengthen grounds for evicting tenants guilty of anti-social behaviour. | |
| Local Connection Tests | Legislate new ‘Local Connection’ and ‘UK Connection’ tests for social housing to ensure fair allocation. | |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | Implement a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule for social housing landlords to evict disruptive tenants. | |
| Additional Initiatives | Holiday Lets Regulation | Grant councils powers to manage the growth of holiday lets to prevent community disruption. |
| Flood Resilience | Continue record investment in flood defences to protect homes and farmland from extreme weather. | |
| Support for Rural Areas | Boost affordable housing in rural areas through rural exception sites and a dedicated taskforce in Homes England. |
Labour
| Category | Pledge | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Housing Supply and Development | Get Britain Building Again | Create 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament, update the National Policy Planning Framework, restore mandatory housing targets, and fund additional planning officers through increased stamp duty surcharge on non-UK residents. |
| Brownfield First Approach | Prioritise development of previously used land, fast-track approval for urban brownfield sites, and take a strategic approach to greenbelt land designation. | |
| New Towns and Urban Extensions | Build a new generation of new towns, urban extensions, and regeneration projects in partnership with local leaders and communities. | |
| Cross-Boundary Strategic Planning | Introduce mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning and require Combined and Mayoral Authorities to plan for housing growth. | |
| Compulsory Purchase Compensation Reform | Improve land assembly, speed up site delivery, and ensure fair compensation for landowners. | |
| Affordable Housing | Increase Social and Affordable Housing | Deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, strengthen planning obligations, and support councils and housing associations. |
| Protect Existing Stock | Review Right to Buy discounts and increase protections on newly-built social housing. | |
| First-Time Buyer Support | Planning Reform | Build 1.5 million homes and prioritise developments for local people. |
| Freedom to Buy Scheme | Help people secure a mortgage and implement a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme to assist those who struggle to save for a large deposit. | |
| “First Dibs” for Local People | Give local people first priority on new developments, ending sales to international investors before construction. | |
| Tax Foreign Buyers | Tax foreign buyers to fund planning officers, ensuring young people are not priced out of the market. | |
| Energy Efficiency | Warm Homes Plan | Invest £6.6 billion to upgrade five million homes, offer grants and low interest loans for insulation and low carbon heating, and ensure private rented homes meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030. |
| Environmental Sustainability | High-Quality, Sustainable Homes | Build more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes, create places that increase climate resilience, and promote nature recovery. |
Liberal Democrats
| Category | Pledge | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Housing Supply and Development | New Homes Delivery | Build 380,000 homes per year, including 150,000 social homes, through new garden cities and community-led developments. |
| Community Engagement | Expand Neighbourhood Planning, build ten new garden cities, reform Land Compensation Act, fund local planning departments, and encourage rural housing. | |
| Brownfield Development | Encourage development of brownfield sites with financial incentives, ensure inclusion of affordable and social housing. | |
| Planning Permission | Introduce ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ planning permission for developers who refuse to build. | |
| Sustainable Construction | Invest in skills, training, and new technologies for sustainable construction. | |
| First-Time Buyer Support | Rent to Own Model | Introduce a Rent to Own model for social housing, where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, owning it outright after 30 years. |
| Tenant and Leaseholder Protections | Leasehold Reform | Abolish residential leaseholds, cap ground rents to a nominal fee, and remove dangerous cladding without charging leaseholders. |
| Renters Reform | Ban no-fault evictions, make three-year tenancies the default, create a national register of licensed landlords, and enforce standards for social rentals. | |
| Second Homes and Short-Term Lets | Give local authorities new powers to control second homes and short-term lets in their areas. | |
| Additional Initiatives | Energy Efficiency | Implement a ten-year emergency upgrade program for homes, starting with free insulation and heat pumps for low-income households, ensure all new homes are zero-carbon. |
| Renewable Energy | Drive a rooftop solar revolution by expanding incentives for households to install solar panels and invest in renewable power to generate 90% of electricity by 2030. |
Green Party
| Category | Pledge | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Housing Supply and Development | Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter | Require local authorities to spread small developments across areas, ensure new developments include local health, transport services, and meet Passivhaus standards. |
| New Social Homes | Provide 150,000 new social homes each year through new builds and refurbishment of older stock, community right to buy, and ending individual right to buy. | |
| Energy Efficiency and Sustainability | Retrofit Programme | Invest £29bn over five years to insulate homes to EPC B standard, £4bn for other buildings, and £9bn for low-carbon heating systems. |
| Passivhaus Standards | Ensure all new homes meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards, including solar panels and heat pumps where appropriate. | |
| Tenant and Leaseholder Protections | Fair Deal for Renters | Implement rent controls, stable rental tenancies, end no-fault evictions, and establish private residential tenancy boards. |
| Additional Initiatives | Community Right to Buy | Grant local authorities the right to buy several categories of property to keep social homes for local communities in perpetuity. |
| Energy Efficiency Improvements | Introduce a tenants’ right to demand energy efficiency improvements in their rented homes. |
Reform UK
| Category | Pledge | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Property Taxes and Duties | Scrap Stamp Duty | Abolish Stamp Duty for properties valued less than £750,000, which is three times the current threshold of £250,000. |
| Abolish Inheritance Tax | Inheritance tax would be abolished for all estates worth under £2 million, compared to the current exemption for estates worth less than £325,000. | |
| Immigration | Freeze Non-Essential Immigration | Strict limits on immigration to relieve pressure on housing and public services. Only essential skills, mainly healthcare, are exceptions. |
| Housing Supply and Development | Reform the Planning System | Fast-track new housing on brownfield sites and infrastructure projects, especially in coastal regeneration areas, Wales, the North, and the Midlands. |
| Incentivise Use of New Construction Technology | Promote innovation in construction to speed up building using modular construction, digital technology, and efficient building sites that cut waste. | |
| Reform Social Housing Law | Prioritise local people and those who have contributed to the system. | |
| Tenant and Leaseholder Protections | Protection for Leaseholders | Ensure all potential charges for leasehold or freehold residents are clearly stated and consented to. Enforce Section 106 agreements, make it cheaper and easier to extend leases to 990 years, and buy freeholds. |
| Abolish the Renters’ (Reform) Bill | Boost the monitoring, appeals, and enforcement process for renters with grievances instead of current legislation. | |
| Landlords | Scrap Section 24 for Landlords | Encourage smaller landlords in the rental market by allowing them to deduct finance costs and mortgage interest from tax on rental income. |
| Net Zero and Energy | Scrap Net Zero and Related Subsidies | Scrap Net Zero targets and related subsidies, potentially saving the public sector over £30 billion per year. |
| Scrap Renewable Energy Subsidies | Abolish annual £10 billion in renewable energy subsidies through equivalent taxes on them. Claim that renewables have increased bills over the last 15 years. | |
| “Cheap, Secure Energy for Britain” | Fast-track licences for North Sea gas and oil, grant shale gas licences on test sites for 2 years, and enable major production with local compensation schemes when safety is proven. | |
| Cleaner Energy from New Technology | Fast-track clean nuclear energy with new Small Modular Reactors, incentivise UK lithium mining for electric batteries, and explore clean coal mining. |
Plaid Cymru
| Category | Pledge | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Housing Supply and Development | Supporting Construction – Unnos Policy | Support the Welsh construction industry by creating centres of excellence in new construction and retrofitting existing housing stock. |
| Develop Local Supply Chains | Work with local authorities and housing associations to develop Welsh local supply chains and skilled labour, retaining profits within Wales. | |
| Planning System Reform | Overhaul the planning system to ensure developments reflect local needs and aspirations rather than developers’ interests. | |
| Support for Local Planning Authorities | Ensure Local Development Plans are not imposed without local planning authorities’ support and maintain up-to-date information on housing needs. | |
| Tenant and Leaseholder Protections | Fair Rents and Rent Control | Introduce a system of fair rents and rent controls to make housing affordable for local people on local incomes. |
| Affordable Housing | Right to Adequate Housing Bill | Introduce powers to enforce rent controls and market interventions to ensure housing affordability. |
| Expansion of Social Housing | Significantly expand social and municipal housing stock to meet community needs and tackle private rental sector rent rises. | |
| End the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Scheme | Campaign to end the Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Scheme, allowing local authorities to re-invest rental income within local housing. | |
| Energy Efficiency | Retrofitting Existing Properties | Implement a long-term plan for retrofitting existing properties to improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and cut carbon emissions. |
Scottish National Party (SNP)
| Housing Supply and Development | Rural Housing Fund | Commit £25 million over the next three years to build new, affordable homes in rural Scotland. |
| Islands Housing Fund | Provide £5 million ring-fenced for housing projects in island communities. | |
| Empty Homes Initiatives | Encourage the use of empty homes through the Empty Homes Partnership, Empty Homes Fund, and Town Centre Empty Homes Fund. | |
| First-Time Buyer Support | Affordable Homes Delivery | Deliver 100,000 affordable homes by 2032, including nearly 67,000 for social rent, backed by £3.5 billion investment. |
| End Right to Buy | End Right to Buy to safeguard existing homes in the social rented sector for future generations. | |
| Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) | Maintain current rates and bands for LBTT, prioritising support for first-time buyers and homes at the lower end of the market, including First Time Buyer relief. | |
| First Home Fund | Introduce the First Home Fund, investing £240 million to help over 11,000 households with deposits needed to purchase their first home. | |
| Energy Efficiency | Decarbonising homes | Decarbonise the heating of 1 million homes by 2030 with investment of £1.6 billion. |
| Support Renewable Energy Generation | Aim to generate 50% of Scotland’s energy from renewables by 2030, publish a refreshed Energy Strategy, focus on new technologies, and streamline processes for renewable projects. |
Keep an eye on our blog and please do get in touch with any questions.
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