The Labour Party launched its General Election manifesto ‘Our Plan to Change Britain’ on 13 June. It begins with ‘Labour’s First Steps’, which will aim to:
- Deliver economic stability
- Cut NHS waiting times
- Launch a new Border Security Command
- Set up Great British Energy
- Crack Down on Anti-Social Behaviour
- Recruit 6,500 new teachers.
Housing is not mentioned except for a brief reference to ‘keeping mortgages as low as possible’ as part of delivering economic stability.
The rest of the manifesto is built around 5 missions for a Labour Government. This Mission-driven government will focus on joined-up working to deliver ‘ambitious long-term objectives’.
The five missions are:
- Kick-start economic growth
- Make Britain a clean energy superpower
- Take back our streets
- Break down barriers to opportunity
- Build an NHS fit for the future
The most specific reference to housing can be found under the first of these. The 5 missions, and the specific housing policy proposals, are carried over without significant amendment, from the policies adopted at the 2023 Labour Party Conference, and summarised in the last Bulletin. The wording is different in places, but there are no obvious policy amendments or additions. As before, the manifesto promises 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament, to be achieved through planning reform and a ‘new generation of new towns’, which will be ‘part of a series of large-scale new communities across England’. The section on social housing is worth quoting in full. It reads:
“Labour will deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. It will strengthen planning obligations to ensure new developments provide more affordable homes; make changes to the Affordable Housing Programme to ensure it delivers more homes from existing funding and support councils and housing associations to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply. Labour will prioritise building new social rented homes and better protect our existing stock by reviewing the increased Right to Buy discounts introduced in 2012 and increasing protections on newly-built social housing.”
This is good news for council housing, although the mention of reforming the AHP to deliver more homes from the same money raises some concerns – this was precisely the aim that gave us “Affordable Rents” after the 2010 election. More concerning is what the manifesto does not mention; there is no reference to the improvement or management of the existing council stock, nor of rents and the financial pressures on council HRAs, although councils wider financial problems do get a mention, but without a clear plan to solve them. There are proposals for a cross-tenure Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the energy efficiency of the housing stock but without any detail on how this will apply to the local authority stock. There is no target to reduce homelessness or end rough sleeping, despite this appearing in most Party manifestos at the last two General Elections, only a promise to come up with an effective Homelessness Strategy.
Less is said about other aspects of social housing quality: Labour says that it will “seek to improve the quality and safety of existing social homes”; the Lib Dems commit to complete the review of the DHS and implement it (for social housing) by 2030, but do not mention the DHS in connection with the private rented sector. The new regulatory system for social housing is not explicitly mentioned.
Labour does not mention social housing rents; the Lib Dems recognise the need for a long-term rent settlement but propose that rent increases should be linked to the Bank of England base rate rather than the rate of inflation. The Greens focus on ensuring that rents remain affordable, but without clearly acknowledging the sector’s’ investment needs beyond improving energy efficiency.
Homelessness also receives somewhat cursory treatment. All three parties argue that the only long-term solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of social, particularly council, housing, but much less is said about the need for early action to tackle the spiralling increase in the use of temporary accommodation. The Lib Dems propose to increase LHA rates to the 30th percentile (as subsequently agreed by the Government); the Greens would introduce rent controls.
Reform of the private rented sector is a shared objective, although detailed policies differ among the parties. All were critical of parts of the Renters Reform Bill, which fell when Parliament was dissolved, but supportive of its main principles, and would probably argue for it to be reintroduced in amended form in the new Parliament.