July’s General Election has brought housing issues into focus. We’ve looked at what has been said in party Manifestos about preventing homelessness, building more social housing and reform in the rental market.
Where we are currently
According to a recent Shelter/YouGov survey, one third of renters are paying half or more of their income on their rent. This is significantly higher than the accepted upper limit of ‘affordable’ limit of 30%.
The rising cost of living and the pandemic have exacerbated this issue causing rents to skyrocket. Shelter says: “Average annual rent increases in England peaked at 9.1% in March 2024 – the equivalent of an extra £107 a month that renters must find, or risk losing their homes.
“Renters are finding themselves pushed to the brink, cutting back on essentials daily or being forced into homelessness because they simply can’t afford the increase. Because for many, a rent increase is as good as an eviction.”
*Government statistics show 44,760 household were assessed as homeless in the final quarter of 2023, up 15% on the previous year. A further 34,220 households were threatened with homelessness, a 4.8% increase.
Conservative plans
In the Conservative Party Manifesto, there is renewed commitment to ending no fault evictions which formed part of the Renters Reform Bill.
If they retain power, the Conservatives have pledged to create a new Help to Buy scheme and will permanently scrap stamp duty on houses selling for up to £425k.
They pledge to build 1.6 million new homes, but there are no clear targets for social housing. They want to legislate for new ‘Local Connection’ and ‘UK Connection’ tests for social housing in England, to ensure this is ‘allocated fairly’.
There are also plans to end rough sleeping and prevent people from ending up on the streets in the first place and a promise to deliver their commitments under the Local Authority Housing Fund and review the quality of temporary accommodation.
Green plans
Greens will push to provide 150,000 new social homes a year and end the ‘right to buy’ scheme. They want to empower local authorities to introduce rent controls and end no-fault evictions.
They will push to introduce a Fairer, Greener Homes Guarantee to ensure warm, safe homes that are well insulated. They want to transform the planning system so new developments come with access to public services and protect green spaces.
A Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter will be introduced specifically to protect green space for communities, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable housing.
Labour plans
Labour’s plans include making housing more affordable, keeping mortgage rates low and building 1.5 million new homes.
The party want to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation. It will do this by building new social rented homes and better protect existing stock by reviewing the increased right to buy discounts and increasing protections on newly-built social housing.
It has been reported (but does not form part of the Manifesto) that Angela Rayner will unveil a new civil service unit to tackle homelessness if the party wins power. The ‘Ending Homelessness Unit’ would go beyond helping rough sleepers and include people who lack a permanent home by sleeping in shelters or moving regularly between hostels, bedsits and friends’ sofas.
And again, whilst not part of the Manifesto, Labour has already promised to end Section 21 no-fault evictions.
Liberal Democrat plans
The Liberal Democrats pledge to build 150,000 social homes a year, ban no fault evictions, make three-year tenancies the default and give local authorities the powers to end right to buy in their areas.
They will scrap the vagrancy act in a bid to end rough sleeping, abolish residential leaseholds and cap grounds rents. Group of homeless people, and those at risk of homelessness, will be exempt from the Shared Accommodation Rate.
A new ‘somewhere safe to stay’ legal duty to ensure that everyone who is at risk of sleeping rough is provided with emergency accommodation and an assessment of their needs will be introduced.
Manifesto’s from all political parties are available to read in full online.
* https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statutory-homelessness-in-england-october-to-december-2023/statutory-homelessness-in-england-october-to-december-2023#household-composition