With just two days to go before the election, here is our at-a-glance guide on the pledges from the main political parties.
Property and home ownership are playing a much bigger part in the forthcoming election than in previous years. Why? Because in the past, buying a place of your own was always a solid, immoveable cornerstone of British life. Today, though, for growing numbers of people, it is becoming an ever-more-distant dream.
In the past year alone, prices have risen in London by 11.8 per cent and even faster in Oxford (13.4 per cent) with Bristol (9.7 per cent) and Aberdeen (7.8 per cent) not far behind. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors predicts annual price growth of six per cent over the next four years.
As a result, young house buyers are becoming an endangered species. The once-healthy flood of first-time buyers has slowed down to a trickle. Half of all 25 to 34-year-olds now rent from private landlords. And according to research from the BBC, that’s twice as many compared to a decade ago.
Politicians of all persuasions are talking about the problem but what are they intending to do about it?
As the election draws closer, here is our at-a-glance guide on what the main parties are pledging on housing. Whether you are buying, selling, renting or letting, you will be affected by who stays or takes up residence at 10 Downing Street.
Conservative
- They pledge to build 200,000 new homes for first-time buyers under 40 at a 20 per cent discount.
- The party plans to introduce new Help to Buy ISAs for first-time buyers to help them save for a deposit.
- They promise to open up the Right to Buy scheme to 1.3 million housing association properties and the money raised will be spent on building new homes.
- They say they will put money into regenerating industrial or “brownfield” sites so that 400,000 new homes can be built.
- They plan to introduce a new £175,000 per person transferable allowance in inheritance tax for main residences.
Labour
- They pledge to build 200,000 under Help to Buy new homes by 2020 and encourage first-time buyers by abolishing stamp duty for them on property worth up to £300,000. Current stamp duty rates are zero on the first £125,000, two per cent on the next £125,000, five per cent on the next £675,000, 10 per cent on the next £575,000 and 12 per cent on properties above £1.5million.
- Abolish the ‘bedroom tax’.
- They promise to provide private tenants with a three-year-long guaranteed rent freeze plus a ceiling on rent increases.
- They want to introduce a sliding-scale mansion tax on owners of houses worth more than £2million starting at £250 per month for houses under £3million.
- They say they will give first choice on new housing areas to people who have lived in an area for three years, who will have two months to buy before the property is marketed more widely under a scheme called Local First.
Liberal Democrats
- They want to build 300,000 new houses per year and ban landlords from letting out inadequately insulated homes.
- They hope to introduce a sliding scale mansion tax on properties worth more than £2million. They share the Labour prediction that this would affect only 0.5 per cent of UK properties and they claim it would raise £1.7billion in revenue.
- They want to lay the groundwork for 10 new Garden Cities.
- They want to achieve 30,000 Rent To Own homes by 2020; first-time buyers pay rent each month but get to own their property after 30 years.
UKIP
- They promise to give priority for social housing to people with local connections.
- They hope to prevent building on Green Belt land.
- They pledge to build one million homes on previously developed land by the year 2020.
- And abolish stamp duty on the first £250,000 on homes built on previously developed land.
The Green Party
- They say they will bring 350,000 empty homes back into use.
- They pledge to introduce a cap on rent increases and introduce five-year-long tenancies.
- They want to also build 500,000 social rental homes by 2020.
- And abolish the Right To Buy council homes scheme and the bedroom tax.
The SNP
- They want to build 100,000 affordable homes to rent a year.
- They plan to abolish the ‘bedroom tax’.
- They pledge to continue support for Help to Buy and shared equity schemes.
- They plan to introduce housing benefit should not be restricted for 18 to 21 year-olds.
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