Here we go again!

There are some pretty big subjects that the main parties have been highlighting and banging on about. The little matter of Brexit and who we think would be the best negotiator for our divorce from the EU (I am just waiting for the call), the never ending subject of funding for the NHS, security and immigration, especially highlighted since the dreadful incidents in Manchester and London and of course taxation, the Tories promising to cut taxes (do we believe them?) and Labour asking us to pay a bit more (not keen, thank you).

There hasn’t been much talk about housing this time round and digging a bit deeper with the 3 main parties (Lib Dems just about hanging in there) there isn’t a whole lot of difference. They all like a sound byte or slogan and this election is no different with the Tories promising to ‘fix the dysfunctional housing market’, Labour committed to ‘secure housing for all’ and the Lib Dems focusing on ‘fixing Britains housing crisis.

The Tories are pledging to build enough homes to meet demand which they hope will lower housing prices and ensure that so called ‘ordinary working families’ can afford to buy. They issued a housing white paper in 2015 which they are sticking to and are committed to build 1,000,000 homes by 2020, plus another 500,000 by 2022. They are pressuring developers from hoarding land and encouraging them to build quickly with modern building methods and a diverse type of property.

They are also committed to protecting the Green Belt and will continue the Help to Buy schemes, shared ownership and lifetime ISA’s. It all sounds good although the Tories or no other governments actually have actually hit theirs targets for housebuilding so far, so we maybe have to take these figures with a pinch of salt.

The labour party is again committing to building 1,000,000 but have also stated that they will be building 100,000 new council homes within the next parliament. They are going to set up a new Department for Housing to look specifically at ensuring there are enough affordable houses to buy or rent and give Councils new powers to build homes themselves.  They are also focused on energy efficient homes and are in consultation about minimum space standards to make sure that so called ‘rabbit hutch’ properties are not built.

Labour have also thought more about the rental market. They are going to try and control rising rents, introduce licenses for landlords, scrap tenants fees and bring in longer secure tenancies.

The Lib Dems seem to be the most ambitious promising 300,000 more homes are to be built a year, double what we are currently doing. This would include 500,000 affordable, energy efficient homes within the parliament.  To create the space for this many new homes they are proposing 10 new garden cities dotted around England so obviously they are not as precious about the green belt as the Tories?

They have also looked at the rental market with broadly the same ideas as Labour plus ‘Rent to Own’ and ‘Help to Rent’ schemes. In all, there is nothing revolutionary about any of the housing policies fro the main parties. I think we can take a large pinch of salt with the numbers of houses they are all hoping to build over the next few years and there seems to be various other schemes and ideas that all sound good but we will have to wait to see if they actually come to any fruition.

This election will be fought over much larger issues than the so called housing crisis and the uncertainty over Brexit or taxation will have a bigger effect on the ambition or confidence of the general housing market.

I do realise that I have said that many times before, we all expected a lot of uncertainty after the Brexit vote and historically a general election usually slows things down dramatically, but inevitably the housing market seems to rumble on with ever increasing demand and prices for sale and rent.

I don’t think we will see any dramatic changes in our housing market for many years and people can confidently buy new properties or improve their existing houses in the knowledge that there is no real downturn in the market looming (hopefully).

This article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton.
Tel: 01702 471155 
Website: www.scottandstapleton.co.uk