Labour’s Top Five Housing Priorities: Everything Industry Professionals Need to Know

Winning their first general election since 2005, the Labour party’s success in securing the majority vote earlier this month is, understandably, being viewed as the first step towards a significant shift for the UK. 

The result has been met with hope by professionals from many industries, but arguably none as hopeful as those working in the homebuilding sector.

The so called ‘housing crisis’ is a term that appeared regularly in media coverage more than 10 years ago; was already in print over 30 years ago, and, sadly, frequents the language of our news outlets in almost any story about housing in the UK.  But why? 

The Big Issue reminds us that, ‘In 2010, funding for affordable housing was cut by 63%, including all funding for social rented homes.  This led to an 81% fall in the delivery of new social housing.’  They go on to argue that, ‘Much of what we’re seeing now is a direct result of the failure to build enough affordable homes.’ 

However, in 2022, writing in the Financial Times, author Anna Minton wrote an article searching for the cause of the UK’s housing crisis and posited the view that, ‘Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy is often blamed but New Labour policies contributed to low affordability and price inflation.’  Opinion on the root cause of this decades-long crisis, it seems, is divided.  What all seem to agree on without question, however, is that the situation in UK housing is unsustainable, and the industry is in need of a reset.

In this blog, we will explore Labour’s housing policy to discover the top five areas the new government are prioritising to address this crisis with the hope to, finally, bring it to a close. These areas are as follows:

1 - Building 1.5 Million New Homes

 ‘Labour made housebuilding a key part of its policy plans in the run-up to the election,’ says Alex Daniel in The Standard.  And when it comes to addressing the housing shortage, ‘The party has promised to build 1.5 million new homes over the course of the next parliament, setting itself an ambitious target,’ advises Labour List.

This primary objective of the government is a huge undertaking and one that will require some significant changes to current procedures for planning, building and selling new homes.  According to the Labour website, the plan is to create, ‘New communities with beautiful homes, green spaces, reliable transport links and bustling high streets.’

But aside from creating new communities, how else will Labour ensure homebuilders are able to ramp up the production of housing so significantly?

2 - Updating the National Policy Planning Framework

According to Devdiscourse, ‘New finance minister Rachel Reeves has unveiled plans to revitalise Britain's planning system.’  They go on to reveal that, ‘Key measures include reforming planning policies, prioritising infrastructure decisions, and reintroducing mandatory housing targets to accelerate development across the country.’  Her plan is also to, ‘Establish a task force to expedite stalled housing developments, potentially supporting the construction of over 14,000 homes nationwide.’

This is welcome news to homebuilders who might have had their development plans stalled or refused, and will open up the system to new developments, which will hopefully experience a clearer and quicker path through to construction.

3 - Prioritising Brownfield and Grey Belt Land

Rachel Reeves disclosed that, ‘Labour would reform the planning system to make it easier to build houses on less desirable parts of the green belt, which Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has dubbed the “grey belt”,’ reports ITV News.  The ‘grey belt’ label actively removes restrictions on certain green belt areas, opening up development opportunities in areas where it was otherwise prohibited, as long as it will not diminish the green belt significantly.

Labour’s emphasis on Brownfield development is also a welcome move in terms of sustainability, as these areas will often require an environmental ‘clean-up’ prior to construction, and must include green open spaces, thus providing an environmentally sound space where before there was none.  You can find out more about getting the most out of Brownfield development here.

4 - Increasing Social and Affordable Housing

Polly Neate, Chief Executive of housing charity, Shelter, said, ‘If Labour wants to hit its target of 1.5 million homes by 2029, the only way to do this is to put social housing at the heart of their plans.’   And it seems Sir Kier Starmer agrees, as Labour’s new housing policy includes a plan to deliver the, ‘Biggest boost to affordable housing for a generation.’

Their approach to this task will involve a variety of initiatives.  One such initiative is to, ‘Upskill local authorities on Section 106 negotiations through an expert, central Take Back Control Unit.’  They will also create guidance on viability levels across different parts of the country, in order to ‘Increase transparency around the viability process for the development of new affordable and social housing.’  And, finally, they say they will ‘Ensure developers can no longer wriggle out of their commitments to build more social and affordable homes, by only allowing developers to challenge cases where there are genuine barriers to delivering these new homes.’

This will be good news to developers who already work closely with housing associations and local authorities to deliver affordable and social housing, but, possibly, less welcome news to others.  Now, is the time, therefore, to look for those partnerships with social and affordable housing providers to ensure you can get the most from these policy updates.

5 - Support for First-time Buyers 

According to Labour List, the new government will, ‘Introduce a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme, to support first-time buyers who struggle to save for a large deposit, with lower mortgage costs.’

It has been extremely difficult for people to embark on their journey into homeownership in recent years, and therefore, it is hard to imagine a housing professional who would not be in favour of this news.  However, it will pose some fresh challenges for homebuilders.  With a surge in first-time buyers coming to market, homes will be in high competition with one another, as will their homebuilders.  We provide guidance to housing professionals on their next available steps, as well as an array of products and services to help you stand out above the competition.  You can find out more by getting in touch, here.

The priorities laid out in their new housing policy reflect Labour’s commitment to addressing the housing crisis through a combination of new construction and planning reforms, and support for first-time buyers.  What do you think about these plans?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.