Posted on 19th July 2024
The country woke up on Friday, 5th July to an election result we all expected – a huge Labour landslide. Let’s take a look at what Keir Starmer’s government plans to do with housing in their first term in office.
1.5 million new homes
Over the next 5 years, the government have committed to build an extra 1.5 million homes by restoring mandatory building targets and pushing local planning departments to approve developments more quickly. Brownfield and ‘grey belt’ areas are earmarked to facilitate this. Interestingly, there are also plans to build a new generation of ‘new towns’ similar to what the 1945 Labour government did – Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee are local examples of these.
Abolition of Section 21 notices
The Conservatives tried for 5 years but never managed to actually pass this in parliament - their ‘Rental Reform Bill’ not making the cut in the last days of the previous parliament. Labour’s manifesto states they will abolish Section 21 notices ‘immediately’ but with a court system that was previously deemed unable to cope with such a move, we’ll have to sit tight and wait to see what their solution will be. They’ve also pledged to empower tenants to challenge ‘unreasonable’ rent increases.
First Time Buyers
Labour plans to help first-time buyers via a ‘Freedom to Buy’ mortgage scheme to assist those struggling to save for larger deposits. They also plan to give locals ‘first dibs’ on new developments in their area.
Greener Homes
The new government are wanting all private rented homes to have an EPC Grade C or above by 2030. Previously a Conservative policy, this was scrapped by Rishi Sunak as it was unworkable. In a private rented sector which is in crisis due to increasingly low stock and landlords selling up, it’ll be interesting to see how the government goes about implementing this. Huge bills for landlords to upgrade rented properties will do nothing to bring more properties to the market and bring rents down for tenants.