Section: Party Manifesto

Labour pledges the biggest council house building programme for decades

Updated 28.11.19
Labour Party: Further reading

The Labour Party's manifesto includes new plans for the biggest council and social housing programme in decades.

This will be paid for with funding from Labour's Social Transformation Fund, half of which - around £75 billion over five years - will be allocated to housing.

The manifesto pledges that the homes will be built to cutting edge design and green standards, citing the award winning Goldsmith Street council development in Norwich as an example.

Labour's plans include:

Scaling up council house building so that 100,000 council homes are built a year.
Building at least 50,000 additional genuinely affordable homes a year through housing associations.

The Labour manifesto pledges a £1 billion fire safety fund to fit sprinklers and other fire safety measures in all high-rise blocks council and housing association tower blocks.

There is also a commitment to enforcing the replacement of Grenfell-style dangerous cladding on all high-rise homes and buildings.

Other commitments in the manifesto include:

Abolishing the (so-called) Bedroom Tax.
Introducing a rent cap and rent controls, so that no one will have to pay more than one third of their income on rent.

Another key proposal in the manifesto is to end the Right to Buy.

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Conservatives focus on home ownership with its building targets and commitment to continuing Right to Buy

Posted 26.11.19
Conservative Party: Further reading

The

The Conservative Party manifesto has launched, with the catchphrase "get Brexit done" printed at the top.

Focusing, this is some of the key issues in the manifesto:

Introducing long-term fixed rate mortgages.
Charging non-UK residents a stamp duty surcharge.
Giving greater rights of possession to good landlords.
Enabling councils to discount homes in perpetuity by a third for local people who cannot otherwise afford to buy in their area. They could use this to prioritise the likes of police, nurses and teachers.
Banning the sale of new leasehold homes.
Getting closer to the target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.

In contrast to the Labour manifesto, the Conservatives are committed to retaining the Right to Buy for council and housing association tenants.

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