On 22nd May 2024 at 5pm Rishi Sunak called for a General Election on the 4th July 2024 and the political parties have been busy launching their manifestos and pledges to promote the future prime minister. Each party has a manifesto with a myriad of policies and pledges to win voter commitment.
With so much being pledged its hard to know how to compare each of the parties policies or how that could affect home sellers, renters, buyers and landlords.
With a focus just on housing and the three main party manifesto pledges there are several similarities that will satisfy the claims that not enough housing is being built, or that rents are too high due to housing supply shortages. Major infrastructure projects, land development and millions of new homes has mostly been capped by no further increase of Taxes over the next parliament, so quite how these pledges will be fulfilled remains for the voting public to decide.
First Time buyers, should rightly, be a point of focus with incentives and support to buy and get a foot on the housing ladder and renters should have more protection, but not at the cost of spikes in house price or encouraging landlords to sell making the supply chain even more restricted.
We have compared the three main party manifesto pledges on housing, but to get a better understanding of what could impact your housing decisions following the elections, come and speak to a housing market expert at Ashtons and make sense of it all. We cannot help you make a voting decision, but we can give you a wide range of property and mortgage advice to make better informed decisions.
2024 Election Manifesto pledges so far:
Liberal Democrat
Build New Houses – 380,000 per year including 150,000 social housing through 10 new Garden Cities.
Fair deal for renters and ban no fault eviction without good reason.
3 year tenancy by default and create a national register of licensed landlords.
Local authority powers to improve broadband and local services to homes and businesses.
End Rough sleeping within next parliament and the Vagrancy Act.
Abolish residential Leaseholds and capping ground rents.
New Rent to Own model for social housing ownership after 30 years
Conservative
1.6 Million new homes in next parliament.
Help to buy scheme for first time buyers with 20% equity loans and only 5% deposits.
Freeze Stamp duty for First Time Buyers at the £425,000 purchase threshold before tax and other purchase thresholds remain unchanged.
New 2 year capital gains relief for landlords selling to existing tenants.
‘Three strikes and you’re out’ on social housing tenants for anti-social behaviour.
Freeze on council tax rebranding and valuation.
Cap on ground rents at £250 and move towards peppercorn levels.
Pass a Rent Reform Bill to abolish Section 21 evictions and strengthen grounds for anti-social tenant evictions.
Boost Inner London housing supply.
Labour
Immediately abolish Section 21‘no fault’ evictions.
1.5 Million New homes target over next Parliament.
Reform planning rules for housing and infrastructure.
Increasing the rate of stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.
Prioritise urban brownfield sites for housing and focus on social rented housing.
Local Authorities given more powers to develop local growth plans.
Support low deposit First Time Buyers with a mortgage guarantee scheme.