Election briefing: housing proposals to the fore

For far too long, housing has been largely overlooked in UK national elections, placed firmly in the too difficult pile.

This election is different: housing is now a key topic and the manifestos contain some eyecatching proposals to increase the supply of new homes.

In this pre-election briefing we look at the proposals from the three main parties.

The Conservatives: Strong, Stable and Surprisingly Socialist

The opinion polls put the Conservatives on track for a decisive win.  Therefore they are the party most likely to need to stand by their pledges, and we examine these in the most detail.

The section of the Conservative manifesto dedicated to housing is short, covering just under two of its 84 pages.  This is not surprising given that the government has only recently published its Housing White Paper (albeit to mixed reviews).  But what it lacks in quantity, the manifesto makes up for in its clear break with the Cameron/Osborne legacy of promoting owner-occupation "passionately" above all else, and relying exclusively on the private sector to deliver housing.  This continues the theme of the Housing White Paper, but takes the theme much further.

The manifesto repeats the Tory commitment from 2015 to deliver one million homes by the end of 2020, and adds a broadly consistent further five hundred thousand homes by the end of 2022.  It also repeats the 2015 commitment to release enough government land to build 160,000 houses although the government admitted in February that it was falling seriously behind on this target.  Finally, it repeats the commitments from the 2016 Autumn Statement to a National Productivity Investment Fund, which will include funding for housing.

But now, as well as a commitment to deliver the reforms set out in the Housing White Paper, there is an acknowledgement that supply will never match demand without the participation of "social and municipal housing providers", and encouragement is given to "ambitious, pro-development and local authorities" which will be helped to build more social housing by way of "Council Housing Deals".  These build on the discussions the government has held with various councils in the Midlands and Yorkshire.

Key proposals include:

• Work with private and public sector housebuilders to capture increases in land value created when building to reinvest in local infrastructure, essential services and further housing, and ensure the public benefits from land value increases.  This builds on the pilot of a Development Rights Auction Model in London which was announced in the Budget, and reflects one of the Mayor of London's key proposals for funding major projects such as Crossrail 2.
• Implement the reforms proposed in the Housing White Paper to free up land for housing, encourage modern methods of construction and promote a greater diversification in house builders by increasing the number of SME building firms.
• Support the building of high-quality, high-density housing such as mansion blocks, mews houses and terraced streets, although it remains to be seen what (if anything) this will mean in practice.
• Support specialist building such as homes for older people, including helping housing associations to increase specialist housing stock.
• As part of the Council Housing Deals, support the capability and capacity of local authorities to deliver new homes and provide significant low-cost central government capital funding for the provision of council housing.
• Introduce new fixed-term social houses, which can be sold privately after 10 to 15 years with an automatic right to buy for tenants.
• Reform compulsory purchase powers to make them easier and less expensive for councils to use and to make it easier to determine the true market value of sites.  This has already caused controversy, being described by one commentator as "manifestly unfair", but hailed by others as a radical move to help unblock regeneration.

As important as what is said is what is missing: there is no mention of the Help to Buy equity loan scheme being extended from its current end date in 2021, and the compulsory provision of starter homes has been dropped.

The continuation of the reforms set out in the White Paper, and the move away from the dogma of home ownership, is very welcome.  But there is much work to be done to meet the Conservatives' ambitions.  In particular local authorities need to take full advantage of the flexibility that the government is offering, and increasingly over stretched planning and housing departments must have the resources to do this.  There is no sign of new money being on offer to support this.  

Labour: For the Many (Londoners)

Surprisingly, Labour promises the lowest number of new houses of any of the main parties: they only commit to build one million homes over course of the next Parliament.  Less surprisingly, 500,000 of these would be council and housing association homes: a huge increase on the 32,630 affordable homes delivered in 2015/16.  

Beyond that, the proposals have more of a feeling of Sadiq Khan than Jeremy Corbyn, and they may give an insight into what Sadiq would like to do, given the chance.  Proposals include:

• a pledge to consult on new rules on minimum space standards;
• a ban on letting agency fees;
• giving the Mayor of London new powers to give renters in the capital additional security;
• new legal minimum standards for rental properties;
• making three-year tenancies the norm with an inflation cap on rent rises. 

Even if Labour does not come to power we can expect the Mayor of London to push these priorities (as indicated in last year's draft Affordable Housing and Viability Supplementary Planning Guidance); the Housing White Paper has provided a consultation on space standards, and if the GLA can make a good case for these policies, at least some of them may well be enacted.

Liberal Democrats: Change Britain's Future (but not its housing policies)

The Lib Dems have set their stall out clearly on opposing Brexit, and on becoming the "official opposition" rather than the government.  Unsurprisingly, given that they have no expectation of putting policies into action, their manifesto is lightweight on housing, and largely retreads policies they proposed in 2015.  They repeat the pledges to build 300,000 homes a year, and at least 10 new garden cities in England, and to set up a new government-backed British Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank.

Conclusion

Given the widespread expectation of a Conservative win, it is reassuring that they seem to be taking housing seriously.  They have listened to the many industry voices encouraging a move towards increasing housing delivery across the public, as well as the private sector and are clearly moving away from the earlier obsession with home ownership.  However some of their proposals will be controversial, and making them a success will require determination and consistency.  
The inevitable storms ahead over Brexit will divert focus, so we hope that whichever party comes to power is still able to give housing policy the consistent attention it needs.