As the country gears up to vote in the General Election on 4 July 2024 the major political parties have released their manifestos detailing what changes they would make if they were given the chance to run the country. Social Housing is at the top of the agenda for all parties.

The Conservative party promise to build 1.6 million new homes, the Greens promise 150,000 new affordable homes a year, Labour promises “the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation”, the Liberal Democrats pledge to provide 380,000 new homes a year including 150,000 social homes and the Reform Party pledge to reform social housing law to prioritise “local people”.

In the insight below, our experts consider the parties promises in relation to financing social housing, over the coming parliament and look at the pledges relating to energy and decarbonisation of the social housing sector.

Conservative manifesto

Housing

The Conservatives promise to build £1.6 million homes in the next Parliament. The measures they propose include a two-year temporary Capital Gains Tax relief for landlords who sell to their existing tenants, re-developing brownfield sites, protecting the green belt, encouraging urban regeneration schemes, introducing a new “Help to Buy” scheme with an equity loan of up to 20% towards the cost of a new build home, introducing new “Local Connection” and “UK Connection” requirements which must be met before social housing is allocated to an applicant and operating a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy for anti-social behaviour.

Other measures include:

• Abolishing the legacy EU ‘nutrient neutrality’ rules to immediately unlock the building of 100,000 new homes with local consent, with developers required in law to pay a one-off mitigation fee so there is no net additional pollution.
• Raising density levels in inner London to those of European cities like Paris and Barcelona.
• Supporting local and smaller builders by requiring councils to set land aside for them and lifting Section 106 burdens on smaller sites.
• Making sure local authorities use the new Infrastructure Levy to deliver the GP surgeries, roads and other local infrastructure needed to support homes.
• Stamp duty threshold to be permanently increased to £425,000 from £300,000 for first time buyers.
• Continuing the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme for shared ownership.
• A Family Home Tax Guarantee: no increase to the number of council tax bands. No cutting of council tax discounts. The maintenance of Private Residence Relief and no increase to the rate or level of Stamp Duty to support homeowners.
• Leasehold reform: capping ground rents to £250 and reducing them to peppercorn over time.
• Pass a Renters Reform Bill and abolish Section 21 and strengthen other grounds for landlords to evict private tenants guilty of anti-social behaviour.
• An end to rough sleeping.
• Support for those who want to build or commission their own home by making the planning process simpler, while also supporting more community housing schemes.

Finance

The Conservative manifesto is silent on financing for housing with the exception of affirming its commitment to renewing the Affordable Homes Programme which is essential for delivering affordable housing in the UK.

Energy and decarbonisation

The Conservative manifesto promises a number of measures aimed at reducing energy costs for UK home owners. These measures include ensuring that green levies on household bills are lower, maintaining the energy price cap, investing £6 billion in energy efficiency over the next three years and funding an energy efficiency voucher scheme, open to every household in England, to support the installation of energy efficiency measures and solar panels.

Green Party manifesto

Housing

The Green Party have promised a Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter which aims to protect green space, reduce climate emissions, tackle fuel poverty and provide genuinely affordable housing.

Their key housing promises include building 150,000 new social homes a year, ending right to buy, an end to no fault evictions and the introduction of a tenant’s right to demand energy efficiency improvements.

Other housing highlights include:

• Requiring local authorities to spread small developments across their areas.
• Allowing a community right to buy for local authorities for several categories of property.
• Requiring all new developments to be accompanied by the extra investment needed in local health, transport and other services.
• Ensuring that all new homes meet Passivhaus Institute or equivalent standards and house builders include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes, where appropriate
• Rent controls.
• A new stable rental tenancy.
• Private residential tenancy boards to resolve disputes before they reach a tribunal.

Finance

The Greens have promised a significant investment programme to kick start decarbonisation of the UK’s social housing stock.

This includes promised investment of:

• £29 billion over the next five years to insulate homes to EPC B standard or above as part of a ten-year programme
• £4 billion over the next five years to insulate other buildings to a high standard
• £9 billion over the next five years for low-carbon heating systems for homes and other buildings.

Other promised investment includes:

• £2 billion per year in grant funding for local authorities to help businesses decarbonise
• a £40 billion investment per year in the shift to a green economy over the course of the next Parliament
• regional mutual banks to be set up to drive investment in decarbonisation and local economic sustainability
• community ownership to be encouraged through greater access to government funding in the transition to a zero-carbon economy.

Labour Manifesto

Housing

The Labour party are promising “the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation”. Their manifesto promises prioritisation of the building of new social rented homes anda pledge to build 1.5 million new homes across the next Parliament.

Key housing promises include reviewing right to buy discounts, increasing protections on newly-built social housing, strengthening planning obligations to ensure new developments provide more affordable homes, making changes to the Affordable Homes Programme to ensure that it delivers more homes from existing funding and supporting councils and housing associations to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply.

Other key housing policies include:

• Prioritising the development of brownfield sites including fast tracking approval of urban brownfield sites.
• Taking a strategic approach to greenbelt land designation.
• The introduction of a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme, to support first-time buyers.
• Giving first-time buyers the first chance to buy homes before international buyers.
• Updating the National Policy Planning Framework to restore mandatory housing targets.
• Ensuring planning authorities have up-to-date Local Plans and reform and strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
• Introducing new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning requiring all Combined and Mayoral Authorities to strategically plan for housing growth in their areas with new planning powers to be granted.
• Implementing solutions to unlock the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality without weakening environmental protections.
• Funding additional planning officers by increasing the rate of stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.
• Reforming compulsory purchase compensation rules.

Finance

Alongside a number of other fiscal promises, Labour promise to increase investment from pension funds in UK markets. They also promise to make the UK the green finance capital of the world. This will include mandating UK-regulated financial institutions (banks, asset managers, pension funds, insurers, FTSE 100 companies etc.) to develop and implement credible transition plans that align with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.

Energy and decarbonisation

Labour promise to invest £6.6 billion over the next parliament on clean energy and decarbonisation measures and Labour promises a “Warm Homes Plan”, which will offer grants and low interest loans to householders to support investment in insulation, solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating to cut bills. They have pledged to partner with combined authorities, local and devolved governments to roll out this plan.

Labour also state that they will work with the private sector, including banks and building societies, to provide private finance to accelerate home upgrades and low carbon heating. They promise to ensure that homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030.

Other key energy and decarbonisation measures include:

• Tougher system of regulation for energy companies that puts consumers first and attracts the investment needed to cut bills including automatic customer compensation for failure.
• The creation of “Great British Energy” (capitalised with £8.3 billion over the next parliament) to deliver clean power by co-investing in leading technologies and deploying local energy production to benefit communities across the country.

Liberal Democrat Manifesto

Housing

The Liberal Democrats promise to increase building of new homes to 380,000 a year across the UK, including 150,000 social homes a year, ban no fault evictions, give local authorities the right to end Right to Buy and introduce a new Rent to Own model for social housing where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, owning it outright after 30 years.

Other measures include:

• Making three-year tenancies the default, and creating a national register of licensed landlords.
• Ending rough sleeping within the next Parliament and immediately scrapping the archaic Vagrancy Act.
• Abolishing residential leaseholds and capping ground rents to a nominal fee, so that everyone has control over their property.
• Protecting the rights of social renters by:
  • proactively enforcing clear standards for homes that are socially rented, including strict time limits for repairs
  • fully recognising tenant panels, so that renters have a voice in landlord governance.

Finance

The Liberal Democrat manifesto proposes a number of measures related to financing for housing including investing in skills in the construction sector and ensuring local authorities are adequately financed to deliver the Homelessness Reduction Act and provide accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse. Other highlights include:

• Properly funding local planning departments to improve planning outcomes and ensure housing is not built in areas of high flood risk without adequate mitigation, by allowing local authorities to set their own fees.
• Trialling Community Land Auctions to ensure that local communities receive a fair share of the benefits of new development in their areas and to help fund vital local services.
• Encouraging development of existing brownfield sites with financial incentives and ensuring that affordable and social housing is included in these projects.
• Putting the construction sector on a sustainable footing by investing in skills, training and new technologies such as modern methods of construction.

Energy and decarbonisation

The Liberal Democrat manifesto proposes a number of measures aimed at decarbonising the UK’s residential housing stock. These include expanding incentives for households to install solar panels and heat pumps, Home Energy Upgrade programme, with free insulation and heat pumps for low-income household, requiring all new homes to be zero carbon and requiring all landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties to EPC C or above by 2028.

Other measures include:

• Removing dangerous cladding from all buildings, while ensuring that leaseholders do not have to pay towards it.
• Driving a rooftop solar revolution by expanding incentives for households to install solar panels, including a guaranteed fair price for electricity sold back into the grid.
• Introducing a new subsidised Energy-Saving Homes scheme, with pilots to find the most effective combination of tax incentives, loans and grants, together with advice and support.
• Introducing a social tariff for the most vulnerable to provide targeted energy discounts for vulnerable households.
• Helping people with the cost of living and their energy bills by implementing a proper, one-off windfall tax on the super-profits of oil and gas producers and traders.
• Decoupling electricity prices from the wholesale gas price.
• Eliminating unfair regional differences in domestic energy bills.

Reform UK manifesto

Housing

The Reform UK Party promise to reform social housing law in the first 100 days of Parliament by prioritising “local people” and those who have paid into the system noting that “foreign nationals must go to the back of the queue”.

Other housing promises that the Reform Party promise to deliver in the first 100 days include:

• Abolishing the Renter’s Reform Bill and instead boosting the monitoring, appeals and enforcement process for renters with grievances.
• Reviewing the planning system to allow fast track planning and tax incentives for development of brownfield sites, including unused offices and vacant high street properties.
• Implementing a ‘loose fit planning’ policy for large residential developments with pre-approved guidelines and developer requirements.
• Reviewing the system of Section 106 Developer Contributions for infrastructure such as schools and surgeries to accelerate house building.
• Scrapping the 2019 tax changes for landlords.
• Protecting leaseholders by ensuring it is cheaper and easier to extend leases to 990 years and to buy freeholds as well ensuring that all potential charges for leasehold or freehold residents are clearly stated and consented to.

The Reform Party also promise to incentivise use of new construction technology including modular construction and fund new apprenticeships and vocational courses to increase the supply of local skilled workers.

Finance

The Reform Party manifesto is silent on express funding mechanisms for housing and energy and decarbonisation, but proposes that their pledges are funded by scrapping energy subsidies, reducing the amount spent on benefits, cutting foreign aid, making savings on immigration and other measures.

Energy and decarbonisation

The Reform UK Party pledge to “scrap net zero” within the first 100 days of Parliament if they are elected claiming that such a move will save the country “£20 billion a year for the next 25 years”.

Other key energy and decarbonisation pledges include:

• cutting energy taxes and scrapping VAT on energy bills which they claim will save households £500 per year
• lowering fuel duty by 20p per litre
• scrapping all environmental levies and renewable energy subsidies
• committing to oil and gas production.

How Capsticks can help

Capsticks aims to be the firm of choice to RPs, offering a full service across banking and governance, corporate, portfolio charging, development and planning law, procurement, housing, leasehold and asset management. We advise over 200 RPs of varying size and location across the country on all areas of housing.

We will be keeping up to date on all developments throughout the General Election and will be providing further updates on any new policies by the newly elected government.

If you have any further questions our expert housing, development, banking and portfolio charging teams would be delighted to assist you. More information of support available at Capsticks can be found here.