With a new Conservative team in government, Jane McGowan looks at what this means for the property market...
In September 2019, the Government launched its Housing Policy. The document stated that the “Conservative Party is determined to get Brexit done, so we can get on with levelling up opportunities across England and ensure that we have a thriving property-owning democracy.”
Following Boris Johnson’s decisive election victory in December, and the prospect of Brexit being ‘done’ in a matter of weeks, what can we expect from the new government’s housing strategy?
A key component of September’s statement was to address the need to aid first-time buyers once the current Help to Buy scheme comes to an end in 2023.
The government said it was committed to establishing “a new national model for shared ownership which allows people in new housing association properties to buy a proportion of their home,” while remaining vague on the details.
In terms of house building, in the run-up to the election, the Tories were promising to build at least one million new homes over the next five years. But after delivering just over one million since 2010, this could be a tall order.
Of the 1.3million already built, only 435,000 were allocated as affordable, making a home of one’s own harder to achieve for many key workers and low earners, especially in the South East.
Where the Conservatives did make large voter inroads was with private renters. Official figures show there are around 84,000 families living in temporary private accommodation in the UK.
The Ministry of Housing estimates that on any given night 4,700 people may be sleeping on the street – a rise of 165% since 2011. In his pre-election promise, the PM vowed to repeal the “no-fault evictions” law that allows landlords to remove tenants as and when they see fit. The party also promised to introduce “Lifetime Rental Deposits” enabling renters to transfer a down payment from one property to the next – without waiting for the initial deposit to be repaid.
Speaking about the plans, the Prime Minister said: “The Conservatives have always been the party of homeownership... in 2020 we can and will do even more to ensure everyone can realise their dream of owning their home.
“At the moment, renting a property can also be an uncertain and unsettling business, and the costs of deposits make it harder to move. We are going to fix that and give them greater peace of mind.”
In terms of planning, the Tories have issued a somewhat mixed message, providing for relaxed planning rules for existing homeowners (who may now be able to erect a two-storey building without requiring full planning permission), while advocating councils should stick to a set of new strict design guidelines, pre-agreed with local residents.
The manifesto claimed a new Tory government will allow communities to have: “greater say on the style and design of development in their area, with local councils encouraged to build more beautiful architecture.”
The scheme could lead to a more cohesive large-scale building programme while creating a mismatch, design debacle as neighbours go head-to-head overextensions and conversions.
The new government has, however, continued its pledge to concentrate on the infrastructure needed to support new developments before the go-ahead is given. It has also stated that brownfield sites must be the priority, which will bring some relief for Surrey residents.
