The UK General Election is now three weeks away and things are getting tense.  Each party is vying for the attentions of the electorate with what seem to be increasingly dizzying promises; you spend £10 billion, we’ll spend £20 billion, you do this for the environment, we’ll do that, and so on. But what of housing? What are the parties aiming to do for the housing market? Here’s a breakdown of what each major party is saying about housing in their manifestos.

Conservatives: The current Government say that they have delivered a million homes in the last five years in England: last year, and delivered what they claim are the highest number of homes for almost 30 years. Their current manifesto sets a target of building and additional 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. They are also offering to make the planning system simpler for the public and small builders, and support modern methods of construction.

Labour: Labour: on the other hand, plan a massive program of social home building with the promise to be building at an annual rate of at least 150,000 council and social homes, with 100,000 of these built by councils for social rent by the end of the next Parliament’s five-year term.  However, that is of little consequence to those seeking to own their home, and the party makes no claim about this beyond promising to review what they call the ‘leasehold scandal’.

Labour are also looking at a system to give housing association tenants a right to buy their homes through shared ownership, which may well complicate the mortgage market.

Liberal Democrats: The Lib Dems’ are a bit vaguer and make the statement that they will increase new direct spending on housebuilding to help build 300,000 homes a year by 2024, including 100,000 social homes, so actually 200,000 new homes per year.  The Lib Dems’ are committed to making new homes friendlier to the environment – alongside updating all building to be so – but don’t go into details.

Green Party:  Despite being formed to counter environmental issues, the Green party manifesto doesn’t mention potential future house-build numbers but does talk about making current homers greener.  They state that there will be a deep retrofitting of 10 million homes by 2030, and roll out solar panels and other forms of renewable domestic energy generation.  The party believe that this will give 1 million households a year the means to generate a proportion of the energy they use. The party also state that any future build should be to the PassivHaus standard.

Brexit Party: The niche party is concerned mostly with the economy and doesn’t make any real claim regarding housing.

While the forthcoming election is being fought on the main fronts of Brexit, the NHS, and the Economy, all of the major parties are looking to build more housing and, mostly, to a low cost but high standard.  All of this means that the overall housing market stock is likely to rise year on year, and will mainly be aimed at first time buyers or those on lower incomes.  With that said, investors are also likely to continue the build higher end properties too since that is where good profits lie.

If you are looking for a first-time mortgage, or to secure a new mortgage deal, come and talk to us here at Grange Mortgages, and see what we can do for you.